Schwechat is a small town outside Vienna and well-known by people as an area of Vienna International Airport (VIE). I have moved from Vienna to Schwechat since 2016. Surprisingly only 20-minute drive from the city center, I am surrounding by a pleasant nature embrace. There are some wild birds visiting my garden. Wild ducks swim in the stream behind my house. Moles inhabit underground in my garden. Hawks hover over an S1 highway. In one fine evening, amazingly I found a beaver casually swimming along the stream.

On Saturday 6 October 2018, I was about to mow a lawn in my garden. A poor beaver was found inside my dirty swimming pool. Assumingly, he probably smelled strange of water inside the pool and accidentally dropped himself into it. My wife and I tried to scoop him up with a big basket, but he was too big to fit in it. Moreover, he did not trust us to get into the basket. On Sunday 7 October 2018, in the morning I leaned a wooden garden bench into to pool in order to lead him out. However, he did not care to try. Finally, I called 122, the Volunteer Fire Brigade of Schwechat (Freiwillige Feuerwehr Schwechat). Full squad of firemen arrived shortly with a big fire truck and a fire van. They were all well equipped and wore not only elegant uniforms but also kind hearts in order to rescue the poor animal out of the pool. Two firemen went into my pool with a big plastic bag and managed to take Mr. Beaver inside it. He was finally set free to the stream behind my house.

 

 

In case you might read a Heute newspaper dated Monday 8 October 2018, you would find this rescue mission on page 10 and 11. I could not thank the Schwechat fire brigade less!