It's not every day you see otters frolicking in the North Thompson River. In fact, the last time Westsyde resident Joe O'Hara saw a river otter in the neighbourhood was about 15 years ago.

So, you can imagine his delight when his wife spotted four, possibly five, otters playing in the water below the couple's shoreline home on Schubert Road on Saturday morning.

“It really was exciting,” said O'Hara, who quickly grabbed his Nikon camera and snapped a few frames. “It's a rare occurrence.”

First thing Monday morning, O'Hara dropped off a disc of otter photos at The Daily News so we could share them with our readers.

By the way, we sent the photos by email to Rick Howie, a Kamloops biologist, who confirmed that those cute critters are, in fact, river otters. While sightings are irregular, river otters can be found along the North and South Thompson Rivers, said Howie.