The Otter

We all know I'm not really into wildlife, except from afar. I'm making brownies for the missionaries' dinner and the beeper sounds on the oven. I stood up (from reading Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer) to get the oven. Outside the living room window is standing The Otter. I got the kids up to the window to see him when he took off directly for our garden. The garden I spent 3 hours weeding yesterday. The garden which finally has two tiny green balls that will someday be cantaloupes. The garden that has 72 tomato plants all laden with green tomatoes. MY GARDEN. He went right in between the tines of the front gate - the only place that is not lined with chicken wire. It was like he knew exactly where to go. Well, he's an idiot. When I got in there to chase him out (this is a big otter and I'm a little scared. but I'm a lot mad.) he ran between 2 fence posts near the cilantro...and right into the chicken wire! He ran along the fence for a couple of feet until he was good and stuck. His little heart was panting so fast and he was scared and I thought, "Crap. I'm going to have a dead otter stuck in my garden! That's gonna smell."
So I talked him out from between the garden box and the chicken wire. Then he ran to the other side of the garden to the basil corner. What animal is going to leave once he's smelled the cilantro and the basil. His next run took him back to the bell peppers and pumpkins. I figured he's won because he's actually got a couple of big bell peppers to eat back there. I hoped he'd get indigestion. I grabbed a shovel and started banging on the fence to drive him out. Finally he found the open gate.
Andrew had come out on the deck and asked, "Mama! There was an otter in your garden?" Yes. There was. "Did you put him in the shed?" he asked incredulously. No, Andrew. He ran past the shed and into the woods. He'd better run far.
And in the mean time, the brownies burned.