The Friendship Story

Chapter Three

Miena didn't hold her unfortunate experience against Dooro. They continued to meet and talk every day, at least for a while, as he was busier than ever. The snow pack was melting and the waters of the tributary swelled, forcing the beaver colony to abandon their lodges, if only temporarily. Dooro explained to Miena that this was actually a good thing because the more water the dam could hold back, the more water there would be to fill new canals and underwater plunge holes so necessary to escape enemies. Now that the trees closest to the lake were gone they had to travel further afield, and each additional canal lined with underwater escape burrows might mean life or death. Through Dooro, Miena came to understand a beaver's passion for dam building.

Along with the increased flow of water and abundant greenery came an explosion of new family members. Besides the coot and merganser ducks with their ducklings, three of the mallard couples were showing off their new broods. Except for their more subdued coloring, Miena thought all the ducklings were adorable miniatures of their parents. For the first time she knew a new yearning and couldn't wait to discuss it with Dooro.

"Do you plan on having a family one day?" she asked the beaver as he lie sunning himself lazily on his back. He flipped to his stomach.

"Yes. I do. A couple weeks ago, as a matter of fact, I was considering it."

Miena was surprised. "You didn't tell me."

"No, I didn't think to. I came across a fresh mound of mud an unfamiliar beaver had put onto a fallen log. She had shaped it into a cone. It smelled... marvelous." He stretched his chin out onto his forefeet and closed his eyes, savoring the memory.

Miena didn't have a clue as to why mud would smell marvelous. "That's.... nice. I have thought about it, too. Not mud, of course -- but having a family. But then..."

Dooro sensed Miena's depression. Knowing she was an outcast from her own kind and unlikely to attract a mate, it occurred to him a distraction was in order. "Look, there's my mother with my brothers."

Sure enough, the mother beaver was swimming across the lake in their direction with her two kits straddling her tail. After passing by a pair of ducks also giving rides to their ducklings, they came right up to Miena and Dooro. The beaver kits immediately abandoned their mother and began leaping onto Dooro and then tumbling over one another.

"Boys, behave yourselves," their mother admonished sternly. To Dooro she said, "Your father and I are about to cut down a big spruce tree. Will you watch your baby brothers?"

Dooro's eyes twinkled. He'd already seen Miena fluff her feathers in anticipation. "That will be fine, mother. Maybe I will give them another lesson on dam building."

The mother beaver smiled her beaver smile and nodded serenely, fully trusting her oldest son. She didn't object to Miena. She'd decided it was an odd friendship, but after all, ducks are no threat to beavers. She returned to the water with a gentle slap of her tail and Dooro, Miena, and the kits all followed her as far as the dam.

Once at the dam Dooro began explaining the fine art of dam building. He told them a dam needs to be wider at the bottom than the top. That instead of one big tree being used as a foundation, many saplings and limbs of older trees heavy with brush go into the construction. Then branches are laid side by side in line with the direction of the current and anchored into the mud by rocks and stones, so as not to wash away. With a web of interlaced branches acting like a net, all manner of driftwood and debris are entrapped. Dooro explained that once the foundation is laid, to be watertight the dam needs a plaster of mud, pebbles, and grasses and that this plastering of mud must be done on the upstream side first or it will wash away. And finally, the heaviest logs are added to the dam on the downstream side and pushed against it at right angles for more strength.