Crazed otter attacks triathlete while training in lake

An Ironwoman swimmer is recovering after being attacked by an otter while she swam in Minnesota's Island Lake last week.  The crazed mammal left the woman with 25 bite marks on her legs, feet thighs and back while training for the Duluth triathlon.

Leah Prudhomme said she was prepared for beavers and muskrats— but not the normally peaceful otter.

"It just kept coming at me ," the 33-year old woman said.  "You never knew where it was going to bite next."

Prudhomme was training for the upcoming triathlon— in the lake near Duluth— with a friend when the pissed-off otter started ripping through her wetsuit.

Her father drove his boat out to rescue his daughter and rushed her to a hospital where she was given tetanus and rabies shots.  The otter wasn't rabid, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said.  It was probably a mother protecting her cubs.

Prudhomme won't let a couple of dozen animal bites keep her from participating in the Duluth Triathlon even thought the swimming portion is in Island Lake.

"It's not like I'll be bitten by another otter," she reasoned.

But what about the beavers and muskrats?