All About Animals discussion

I am trying to find a book of animal short stories, probably in the young adult category, that i read when iwas a young person, there was a story about a big fish in a lake that was being hunted by an otter, but was saved by a native man who hunted the otter. There was an illustration plate with the quote "that broke the otters hold on the fish's back". There was also a sfory about a woodchuck that was captured by a boy and put on a rope leash. The boy was met by a passing stranger that looked to be an escaped prisoner who convinced him to free the captive animal. I think there was also a story about a family a mischievous young raccoons getting into garbage cans at night. I have been looking for years to identify and obtain this book. Any help is appreciated.

Good luck Bill. Maybe you could put 'written before year xxxx' you think, as 'when you were young' isn't as specific. Do you remember the cover?

Was it illustrated? Maybe if by someone who made illustrations for other books you could identify another book with the same illistrator and use that as a clue to find others and maybe to yours?

Just trying to help. If it was a dog book I could probably help you, but animal stories are not in my focus.

Thanks Stephen, good catch. The book I'm looking for would have been written pre 1970, had a plain hardcover binding brownish or tan flecked I think and may have been missing a dust cover. Could have been a Harper and Rowe or Dunham book because I have found so many from that era from those Publishers that look similar on the outside (does that qualify for judging a book by its cover?) It only had one Illustrated plate for each story.

Also as a follow-up on The Illustrated plates they were all ink pen sketches