Friendly guy rescues river otter as a baby, releases her back into the wild when she's fully healed, but she always comes back to hold his hand one more time (Video)

Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager

Jan 31, 2025 10:00 AM EST

Every day we write about wholesome stories of heroic hoomans rescuing animals of all sorts - from doggos, to bobcats, and even penguins! We just have one question: when will we get the awwpportunity to save a river otter and make them become our lifelong friends? Maybe we're just not that lucky. Always meant to be the bridesmaid, and never the bride. Well, if we can't beat them, we might as well join them. We'll have to live vicariously through the wholesome animal videos we share with you.

Mats, just your average, friendly guy, rescued a baby river otter. After rehabilitating it, he did the right thing and released it back into the wild. But he didn't want to say goodbye for furever to his pawdorable pal, so he went out to visit her…and she came back! She came back to find him again and again, every time coming back to snuggle, say hello, and hold his hand just one more time. The video below is too cute to believe…so just go watch it already!

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See! We told you - she loves holding his hand. Otters love to hold hands in general, but when she does it with her hooman, it makes it extra special somehow. Normally, we don't like wet creatures climbing all over us and touching our hands, but for her, we will make an awwdorable exception.
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Yes, he is very lucky indeed. Too lucky. He should share some of that luck with the rest of us. We, too, would like to rescue an otter (or a tiger, bear, or penguin) befriend it, and then have a little wild animal companion that follows us around everywhere. That sounds epic!
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