Otter vs. Beaver

We live on a lake and are surrounded by an abundance of wildlife. Eagles catch fish in the lake, raccoons fight at night, otters play on our dock, and Canadian geese poop on our lawn. Lately in our neighborhood, there has been talk of beavers. A neighbor a few houses down said that she had beavers building a home under her dock and to be careful as they tend to get a bit aggressive this time of year (mating season, I guess). They also will kill living trees so she told me to keep an eye on a little piney tree I have in my planter strip down by the beach.

When I took B out this morning to do his business, we walked down by the water’s edge. Another neighbor on the other side has a little wooden platform that spans out over the water a bit. The last few days, B has been very interested in sniffing around over there.

All of a sudden I heard a loud huffing sound and B went crazy. I think I said something like “Holy Crap!” Thank heavens B was on his leash, or he probably would have gotten in a fight with…whatever it was.

It swam out from under the platform around from the far side and came almost right up to the shore. Then it stuck its head out of the water and boldly looked at us. It was definitely bigger than B, and it seemed to have an attitude of “Hey, buddy, don’t mess with me!” Then it turned around and swam off under the water.

But it didn’t look like a beaver to me…more like an otter but I've never seen either up close. I dunno, do you think you'd be able to tell the difference between these two animals just by looking at its head? Whatever it was, I don't want to get up close and personal again. There are definitely instances where aggressive otters have attacked dogs.

So, that’s our bit of excitement for today already! It’s a beautiful day, sun is shining, so B and I will see what other trouble we can get into on our walk this morning.

Have a great day, everyone!