Illustrations: Oliver the Otter

Oliver is a river otter, and plays in our local rivers and marinas. He isn’t a saltwater otter, and likes to stay in the brackish and fresh waterways, including the swales by my house. He is playful and skittish, as he should be, because while he nibbles on small fish and crabs, he stays away from people and predators. Glimpsed from a distances, he appears and is gone.