Texas: Officials trying to figure out how river otter got down to the freeway

TEXAS -- A Brazoria woman just driving down Highway 36 near Freeport when she says she noticed something in the road, did a double take and turned her car around and stopped, finding a river otter.

"I thought it was a seal and I said they don't have seals around here," Kristy Fagan said.

The animal is usually very shy. Wildlife experts say seeing a river otter is rare around Texas.

"I was like, that is an otter, okay. So I started taking a picture, but before I could take a picture, I saw it go, 'ahhh'. It was laying on its back."

The otter was hit by a car and struggling. Fagan tried to save it. She said it was breathing. Fagan used the mat from her car and carried the otter from near the Brazos River to safety. Then, she called Gulf Coast Wildlife Rescue for help.

"When I saw it was still breathing, that's when I was hoping that maybe just maybe it will just be unconscious and maybe I can save it."

Fagan's husband says she is filled with compassion for all animals and will never look away.

"She's always stopping to help animals, anything she can do to help anyone that's what she's always done," Michael Fagan said.

Within hours, the otter died from its injuries. Wildlife Rescuers told her the otter will be preserved for a local museum. Fagan says she treats animals like her own children.

"The fact when you can't have kids, it makes you even more attached to animals because you always want to take care of that something."

(ABC13 - January 13, 2017)