[Grant]

No shortage of chipmunks in our neck of the woods. However, for a most of this year, I thought we'd lost a long-time rival -- an otter that has taken to using our boathouse as a "latrine" (go ahead and Google "otter latrine" for an explanation.

Last week, as I was packing up stuff for a trip home after fetching kids from camps, I went down to the boathouse, only to discover that my pooping/sliming nemesis had just fled. Wet footprints, tail tracks and, yep, ample scat and malodorous mucus slime. It was the first "visit" by the critter since last winter. When I visited in November, he'd taken a PFD down from a hook and pooped all over it. He also loves to deposit his waste on an 8x8 beam that I use to support a canoe and small boat during the winter. In previous years, he'd made numerous stops during the season, but nothing this year until last week.

This was the second time I had missed him by seconds. He typically swims into the boat slip, jumps out, runs around the top of the slip, poops/marks, and then splits. I know it's not a mink, as we've had them along the shore forever, and it's not mink behavior. Still, I've never seen the character. I'm sure he's left more "presents" since I left... I'll be back soon enough to clean them up. Ugh.

Apologies for hijacking a chipmunk thread. But no shortage of those little dudes this year at all.