3:29

Most people wouldn’t think that a beaver was that large of an animal. Generally people saw beavers floating gracefully through the water or crouched beside a fallen tree, and dismissed them as short and stout. But a full-grown beaver standing on his hind feet and stretched upright was more than sufficiently long to reach the top hinge on a door. And his agile claws were more than dexterous enough to pop the aforementioned hinge out with a quick twist of his paw.

The beaver gazed at the door laying in the shrubbery outside the concrete monstrosity that was his destination and briefly regretted his inability to hang it back up. After all, he wasn’t trying to cause any permanent damage or leave the building vulnerable to restless teenagers or drunken townspeople. But the beaver had things to do, and it certainly wasn’t his fault that evolution had determined he wasn’t in need of an opposing thumb.

A quick step took him out of the rain and he paused a moment to let his eyes adjust. Time to be about this little task and back to the pickup before Meredith returned.