There are a few otters in my area (upper Texas coast) and as I watched one crossing a road one morning I was thinking that if someone wasn't sure of the distance, they might easily mistake it for a cat, possibly a big one?
As to the bears, the Black Bear Recovery Committee has helped get enough bears started again in Louisiana that they may be considering a season soon. Many of these cross into East Texas, and there is also a population in Oklahoma. A friend of mine is director of that program, and I asked him awhile back if he thought bears would kill and eat hogs, because I had heard that the parishes in Louisiana with a bear population had few hogs. He told me he'd personally bet on a big hog in such an encounter. He said bears are not big meat eaters anyway, and the parishes with bears and no hogs are just parishes the hogs haven't moved into - YET.
He also feels Florida may have a bear season in the near future.
