Down by the riverside

On Monday, Oda Mae and I went for our run over by the river. There are lots of trails and we like to look for nature. Usually on our run we'll see cats, dogs, goats, donkeys (all on the way to the river), and turtles, squirrels, and ducks (at the river). On Monday we were half way done with our run and were resting under the bridge where it was shady. As we were looking down at the river, I saw something that seemed to be moving. At first I thought it was just a log, but then I noticed that it was defiantly moving upstream. I could see its head just barely poking up out of the water and every once in a while I saw its back come up. An alligator or crocodile? I knew that it was pretty unusual to see something like that in a local river, but it wasn't unheard of.

As the animal got closer, I could see that it had fur on it's head so I knew it wasn't an alligator or a crocodile. It was swimming close to the bank so then I thought that maybe it was a dog trying to make its way back up. I like dogs mostly so I put Oda Mae on her brakes and went down to investigate. If I could, I wanted to help the dog out of the river. When I got close enough to be able to see clearly into the water...

THIS IS WHAT I SAW. Or, was it THIS?

I'm not too sure which one it was, but it kind of freaked me out a little. It was as big as Fergus (my 30 lb dog)! If it had come out of the water and started chasing me, I would have screamed like a little girl! Either way, it was a R.O.U.S!