Cute but Vicious!

   You just never know what you might find around the Bayou.  My usual walk to the pier to watch the sunrise started pretty uneventful other than an impressive sunrise.  This did not surprise me a bit since fall and winter skies are filled with color both at sunrise and sunset.  Lay in a light coating of fog and the skies are even more exciting.  

  It was while I was sitting flat on the pier near the small wallowed out area where we moor the little skiff during storms when I heard what could only be described as something sounding a lot like "a herd of elephants" sloshing around in the marsh.  There is a cut that leads from the main part of the Bayou to this small inlet.  This cut is used by a lot of the critters as an easy access from one spot to another.  Whatever was coming through that cut was not worried about letting all others know of its presence.  The racket was unbelievably loud in the early morn quietness.  It was not long before the noisemakers popped into the shallows and continued their merrymaking.

  A family of otters tore into the tidepool and played for a bit before heading on their way out to the open waters of the Bay.  When you get five large animals sloshing about in a foot of water, it makes for a good bit of splashing!  The critters were so intent on their play that they never noticed me sitting just ten feet from them.  I was able to get about a dozen photographs before they exited the small cove.  Well, that sure livened things up a tad!

  As cute and cuddly as the otters seem to be, I was certainly glad I was on the pier and not down on the same level.  Most folks have no idea how incredibly violent natured these animals can be.  When disturbed, they can become aggressive and are amazingly strong.  They are also some of the only critters that kill seemingly because they can and not necessarily for food.  One of the most disturbing sights for me was to come across probably this same family of otters attacking a poor, hapless possum.  The possum made the mistake of ambling too close to the marsh in search of food.  The otters quickly attacked, mauled (literally skinned) and killed the possum for no apparent reason. It is no far stretch to call them vicious when things like that occur.

   It occurred to me that, as an old lady, had the otter family decided to attack, there would have been very little I could have done.  They do often get up on the pier where I was sitting and, well, a camera is of little use as a means of defense.  All that aside, I did enjoy their antics and the up close and personal photography opportunity.