Ha ha! Loved this story!
I'm not ashamed to say I can totally relate! Yeah, those darn beavers!!! I've been thigh deep fishing a river in the evening...stayed too long...wading back upstream after dark...and then I hear a rustle and a HUGE SPLASH between me and the nearby shore. I KNOW its a beaver...but doggone it, I can't help but entertain visions of big alligators doing exactly the same thing. Sure, there aren't SUPPOSED to be alligators in northern Illinois, right? Maybe somebody let their overgrown "pet" gator loose in the wild when it became to big to keep feeding? YIKES!