A Beastly Walk on a March Day

On my mostly daily walk a few days ago, I spotted what looked like a small beaver scurrying along the road about a kilometre from our home. It came up from the river side of the road and crossed onto the sidewalk ahead of me. Then, it scurried into the grass parallel to the side walk and kept going at a very good pace. 

I was watching it as I was gradually catching up to it. It was, most certainly, a muskrat. By the time I was about eighty metres on, it was scampering along the sidewalk. I wanted past, so I went onto the grass to overtake it as quickly as I could. It charged at me, coming right up to my feet. I jumped back in nervous and embarrassed fright. 

Every time I tried to pass it, the beast charged again. I jumped again. Finally, I let it get ahead of me. However, after a couple of further unsuccessful attempts to pass the aggressive little monster, I decided to take a wide sweep and get on my way. I went out tino the middle of the road. It was still scampering along the sidewalk parallel to me. But I managed  to get ahead of it. 

When I was about thirty metres ahead, I turned around and saw it running along in the middle of the roadway.  A car had stopped. A woman got out. She walked towards it. It charged at her, just as it had at me. She likewise jumped back. It charged again coming right up to her feet. This time however, she bent down towards it. She picked it up, carried it across the road to the water side and tossed it over the edge toward the river.

Thank god for brave women, I thought! Brave and perhaps foolish in retrospect. The creature's behaviour was most unnatural. It might have had rabies.