Going to the Wal-Mart(s)

In my small town, Wal-Mart(s) is a necessary evil of life – there just aren’t many options available when it comes to stocking up on paper towels, English peas and bottled water. I'm all about Target, but it’s over 40 miles away, and I stick pretty close to home most of the time. I also don't get into the bulk store groove; I can’t quite wrap my mind around investing that much in paper supplies that I just might need financing to purchase and an addition on my house to store. So, every week or so, when I’m running low on supplies, I suck up, grit my teeth and go to Wal-Mart(s) and when I do I always check out the retaining pond that’s at the far end of the parking lot.

The retaining pond and that end of the parking lot has been and endless source of entertainment for me for quite some time (what can I say, I’m easily amused). Flocks of Canadian Geese hang out there and people feed them, puppies are for sale on occasion, people sometimes fish. And in the winter there are huge flocks of seagulls sitting in the parking: isn’t it funny how they all scatter and fly up when you drive through them really fast? I’m not saying that I’ve done that…umm, I’ve just seen it done…

And the Crowning Jewel of our Wal-Mart(s) parking lot is the retaining Pond. It has a medium sized willow tree, a half submerged shopping cart and was circled by the ever present Bradford pears. And ‘lo one day I noticed that all of the Bradford’s were laying on the ground, hacked off, leaving stumps about a foot or so high. The stumps looked really odd, gnawed they did, and then I noticed a HUGE pile of rubbish and brush in The Pond. And it hit me, that it wasn't just a pile of brush, it was A BEAVER DAM!

BEAVERS HAD COME TO WAL-MART(S)! Welcome Wal-Mart Rodents!

From that day forward I always made it a point to drive into the Wal-Mart(s) lot from that entrance. I would drive slowly drive by the pond, scanning the surface for a beaver. MY EYES WERE PEELED.

INTERNETS, I have faced much ridicule from my family in my quest to see a beaver at Wal-Mart(s). But I have been steadfast in my position, that one day, I would drive by to see one of those little fellows backstroking across that pond.

But, sorry to say that has not happened, and today when I went to Wal-Mart(s) to purchase yet more dog food and cat food, I noticed a pile of new Bradford pears waiting to be transplanted. A row of new shrubs had already been put in – does the landscape crew know something that I don’t? Perhaps the beavers have been; annihilated?

Here’s what I think happened, I think those ungrateful little rodents packed their bags and relocated to SUPER TARGET.