Living on the nature channel we are surrounded by random sightings of wildlife. Deer, raccoons, and squirrels spontaniously walk past us or look in our windows. Bacardi our thirteen
year old Cocker Spaniel is pretty oblivious to most of the goings on.. She can usually be found laying down near E, between meals.                 

Sami however chases every animal he meets.. He doesn’t chase them to catch them.. He just doesn’t want anyone near me.. His main goal in life is to protect me.. He cannot be convinced that I am perfectly safe from these creatures outside our window and he continues to go nuts every time one flies or runs past.

We are staying down at SoHo for a week or so, on vacation so to speak. When we arrived a deer was on the lawn.. Sami chased him off.. He never goes past our property line.. He just wants to stake his claim to this territory and let the deer know, they can’t come near me. Then he lay down asleep on the deck assured that his job was done and I was safe.

But an otter chose that moment to walk across the lawn to the ocean. Although otters are cute to watch in the ocean from a distance, they are mean critters and have a nasty reputation for cruelness.. They don’t run when chased. They fight. Sami flew across the deck and was quite surprised to catch him and find himself in a battle.The otter swiped at his face and Sami cried out and scurried back to the deck.

He was bleeding profusely from the mouth. We thought he had lost some teeth but no further damage. We took him to the Emergency Vet clinic on the island.. About an hour and half to get there.. He wasn’t crying and in fact was wagging his tail when he got off the boat and pranced up the dock… I was sure they were going to tell us he lost a few teeth.. give him a Tylenol and send him on his way….

but no

He was in surgery for three hours. He lost several teeth, has a broken bone in his jaw and the skin was “degloved” from his jaw bone. They reattached the skin with creative needle work anchoring it to the canine teeth. He is in a sad and sorry state. But the Doctor was “cautiously optimistic” the surgery would take and the wound will heal.

Right now he is curled up on my lap, very heavily medicated with a cone around his head on a liquid diet for several weeks.  Poor little sweet thing.                         The Emergency clinic Vet said she had seen cougar attack, bear attack, racoon and car accident victims but never

an otter victim