Ironwoman athlete Leah Prudhomme knew she could get bitten when she swam in  Minnesota’s Island Lake last week. She was prepared for beavers or muskrats, but  not for an otter.

One of the normally peaceful mammals savaged her back, legs and feet 25  times, forcing the 33-year-old to get rabies shots, the Star Tribune.

“It just kept coming after me,” she said. “You never knew where it was going  to bite next.”

Prudhomme was preparing for an upcoming triathlon in the lake near Duluth  with a friend last Wednesday. She wore a wetsuit over her swimsuit, but the  otter was able to tear through it, leaving bites in her flesh as deep as two  inches.

In addition to the shock of the attack, she told the Star Tribune, “I  couldn’t believe Duluth had an otter.”

Her father drove his boat out to his daughter, pulled her from the water and  rushed her to a Duluth hospital, where she was given tetanus and rabies shots.  She had another series of rabies shots Saturday.

If the otter wasn’t rabid, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officer  Mike Scott told the Star Tribune, it may have been a mother trying to protect  her pups.

Prudhomme said she still plans to participate in the Duluth Triathlon, even  though the swimming portion will take place on Island Lake.

“It’s not like I’ll be bitten by another otter,” she reasoned.