Holly’s note:   I am re-running this episode of Holly’s Animated Life that was posted on May 8, 2008 because it is my very favorite.   It is the origination of my Texasholly social media profile picture.   I have digitally enhanced the drawings and hope you enjoy it…

Holly lives in a suburban neighborhood of one of the United States of America’s largest cities.

Normally all God’s creatures do not congregate in a suburban neighborhood of one of the United States of America’s largest cities but Holly doesn’t live normally.

One day Holly went outside her house and saw this:

“Hmmmmm….weird” she thought.

Holly loves all God’s creatures. Holly thinks beavers are cute and have a reputation for being busy.

The next morning Holly went outside her home and saw this: Legend: Pinkish Red circled “X”=trees felled by beaver(s) Holly loves all God’s creatures. Holly thinks beavers are cute and are living up to their reputation for being busy. The next morning Holly went outside her home and saw this: Legend: Pinkish Red circled “X”=trees felled by beaver(s) Holly loves all God’s creatures. Holly thinks beavers are cute and are really living up to their reputation for being busy. The next morning Holly went outside her home and saw this: Legend: Pinkish Red circled “X”=trees felled by beaver(s), Large fancy two-toned arrow emphasizes that a tree between Holly’s house and the street was also felled. WHAT? Holly has no problem with beaver activity as long as it is not interrupting her home’s landscape. There are plenty of trees around to share. Holly thinks the beaver(s) have gone too far. Holly is mad. Holly loves all God’s creatures except for beaver(s) who overstep their landscape boundries. Holly thinks most beavers are cute and live up to their reputation for being busy. Holly thinks a small minority of beavers are evil and out to ruin her landscape. Holly makes a call to the beaver relocation program: Soon a professional trapper arrives to put an end to the small minority of beavers who are evil and out to ruin Holly’s landscape. The professional trapper sets two traps along the creek and one trap in the pond. Holly made this handy dandy trap map for your reference: Holly is so proud of herself for hiring a professional trapper to relocate the small minority of beavers who are evil and out to ruin her landscape. She is so happy until she hears this: Which causes Holly to say this: Before the professional trapper leaves he gives Holly trapping lessons. Holly learns that any trapper worth her salt (and Holly is pretty sure she is worth the 75 cents that salt is worth) checks her traps early in the morning. The next morning Holly goes out to check her traps around 6:30 am. Holly is sleepy and just got out of bed. Holly is still in her shorty pajamas. The one thing the professional trapper forgot to mention was the dresscode for beaver trapping: Holly does put on her tall rubber snake fighting boots because Holly loves all God’s creatures except for beaver(s) who overstep their landscape boundries and snakes. Holly sets out to check the traps along the creek. The trees are so thick that it is very difficult to walk. The trees behind Holly’s house are very dense: Holly finds that if she walks down the middle of the creek she can get to the two traps along the creek without fighting too many trees. She finds that she trapped a turtle in the first trap. She finds that she trapped a turtle in the second trap. Holly is pretty sure that trapping turtles isn’t going to help her beaver problem. Holly starts toward the third trap. It is not along the creek. It is very difficult to get to. Holly fights through the trees and brush. Holly is fighting through the trees and brush when she thinks she might hear a snake. Holly is not rational enough to assess that one usually doesn’t HEAR a snake. Holly starts pushing and shoving through the trees and brush to the edge of the trees behind Holly’s house. She is so frantic that she falls out of the woods: Holly literally falls out of the woods behind her house onto the golf course that is behind the woods behind her house. When she lands she is approximately 6 feet away from the ball of a early rising golfer. She is 15 feet from his golf cart in which his partner is sitting. She is 25 feet from another golf cart filled with the remainer of the early rising golf foursome. To be fair, Holly is unsure of the five parties involved who was more startled. Before running back into the woods to escape the early rising golfers, Holly said this: Holly is suspicious that this little episode might have been told again once the foursome got back to the golf clubhouse. Holly is a little suspicious that there might have been some laughing involved. Holly is pretty sure they didn’t buy the beaver trapping story so she would like to post this in the clubhouse just to set things straight: It is true that Holly did end up trapping 2 beavers, a racoon and 3 turtles. None of these fierce animals were hurt in anyway. The beavers and racoon were relocated to a more rural location. Unfortunately for Holly it didn’t happen overnight. Holly was just like Pa from Little House on the Prairie for 2 weeks. Holly was very careful on all following beaver trapping trips to wear REAL clothes and listen very closely for snakes.



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123 Comments

  1. Holly, I hadn’t ever read this! Thanks for choosing this one to link too. It is so great. I am in awe of your talent. Thanks for playing along.

  2. Oh my WORD!! Obviously new to the board, but so glad I’m finally here. Thanks for the laugh. The new school week has sapped me dry – but THAT is hilarious – in a “glad it didn’t happen to me, but VERY sorry it happened to you” kind of way.

    I’ll leave you with one of my all-time favorite movie quotes…

    “Nice beaver!”

    “Thanks, I just got it stuffed.”

    EM

  3. Your story (and illustrations) are great. I can picture the foursome of men out for an early morning round of golf and then you fell out of the woods in your shorty pajamas.

    I hope your husband is ashamed that he did not do trap checking chore.

  4. How funny, I think I will join the golfers in a laugh at your expense, I hope you don’t mind! 😀

    I know I’m a bit late in the game to be reading this post. Heidi from Frantically Simple had told me she got the idea of “Adventures in Heidi” from you and pointed me in this direction.

  5. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this, and I just didn’t know what to say. I still don’t- but I will say that if I had never started reading your blog I would have NEVER guessed what you are all about. LOL

  6. Ohmygoodness, I just discovered your blog and I have not laughed this hard in ages!!!!

  7. I’m a little concerned that all of your outfits are sheer. What’s up with that? You are so risque!

  8. I’m reading this pretty early in the morning and I’m realizing you’re going to have to be later-in-the-day reading for me. I’m laughing too hard and it hurts and I haven’t had a diet coke yet!

    LOL!!