Dogs reacting in Stone County, Arkansas

August of 2017 me and my son were fishing in a secluded creek. The creek is very shallow in spots so in order to access it you have to wade fish. We fished around a low water bridge for maybe an hour and decided to head up stream to the next deep hole of water just over some shoals. I knew that around the bend of the creek where the deep hole was there was lily pads, so I instructed my son to be very slow and quiet on our approach so not to spook any bass that may be feeding around them. Once we made the bend I observed what at first seemed to be a beaver about 50-75 yards away from us upstream where the water is deeper. It was headed toward some large rocks but what seemed unusual about it was it’s shape. It was higher out of the water than any beaver or otter I’ve seen. The animal got close to the rocks and just stopped about a foot or two away from the cluster of rocks just in the water. If I hadn’t seen it moving to begin with it would have blended in very well with the rocks. I noticed my son was watching it too and and asked what is that and I replied that I wasn’t for sure so I made some racket with some cattle calls to maybe spook it on to the rocks so we could get a better view of this thing but what happened next still sends me into a mild state of fear just recalling it. It started swimming back to the opposite bank and just stopped for about a second then it rose out of the water. Now I know what I was looking at was massive because the water in that part of the creek is chest deep and I vividly recall seeing the daylight between it’s legs. It stood there probably 3 seconds at most but the image was burnt into my brain forever. It had a reddish tint to its fur and massive arms that just hung to its side almost touching the water. I couldn’t see any facial features because the sun was behind it. After what I felt was a stare down it lunged toward the bank that it originally came from which was an erosion bank about 10 feet vertical wall and it made it up using a tree about a foot diameter to pull itself with. Doing so it pulled the tree, roots and all, down to the water. We heard it storming off in the thickets till we couldn’t hear it any more. My son and I wasted no time getting back to the truck. Haven’t been back to that spot since. Now what I’m guessing it was at the creek doing what ever it was doing and we caught it by surprise and it mimicked a beaver trying not to be discovered. I always heard about these things and thought it be something to see one. I wish now I hadn’t seen it. It filled me with terror and excitement but who can you tell? My son hardly talks about it and I keep it all bottled up inside my head like a re run of some horror movie......