FORE!!

The beaver is nocturnal, which is somehow really cool to me, and semi-aquatic.  One might imagine the beaver taking issue with that one way or another. 

"I love the water," he might say, "just not all the time.  And you should see me swim.  Oo-doggie I'm a swimmer.  Better than you are."

Of course I can only conceive of a beaver with a contrary nature, competitive, and not just because he's a rodent (rodents of course being all about getting whatever they can grab, whenever they can grab it.) But more because they seem stubborn in their industry.  Or that the industry makes them stubborn, and unsentimental and not given maybe over to "flights of fancy."  Thus it follows that I'm presupposing that the rest of the world is sentimental and prone to screwing around in an unserious manner, and therefore a nuisance to the beaver.  

Beavers are, of course, known for building dams and canals and fashioning a home and in around them.  The natural instinct, you see, is to impede and take over in order to settle down.  Also, when frightened, the slap their tails on the muddy banks of a stream or a river.  Amazing, those tails--one imagines them leathery and slick from the beaver natural oils, oils often harvested as an additive in perfumes--wide spatulas, an almost perfect tool for beaver-work, and yet stuck on to the beaver's ass, counter-point to the task at hand. Then again, it's hard to get inside the mind of a beaver.  The sense of direction, back to front and left to right must have evolved in such a way as to make head and tail work interdependant and independent simultaneously.  Talk about a split personality.

Beavers belong to the genus "Castor" though I find no obvious connection to Greek mythology and certainly not a constellation in their nature and personality.  Castor oil though, yes absolutely.