: Robert,
: Great story, I think it captures an aspect of paddling few capture
: in books. Do you have river otter in the area? The time of day
: and the actions sound like a young river otter.

We do have otters so it could have been an otter but the tail seemed pretty rat-like so my best guess was a muskrat...seen enough of them. I am always looking for wildlife when I paddle, it's the main reason why I love to get on the water with my camera. I would have snapped a shot if I didn't think the critter was dead but I was also quite lazy at that time.

Robert N Pruden