Otter Rescued After Wandering Into Dairy Queen

An otter in West Tennessee had to be rescued by wildlife officials after it wandered through a Dairy Queen drive-thru.

A Dairy Queen restaurant in Brownsville, Tennessee got an unexpected customer in the form of Blizzard, a spring otter pup that just wanted some ice cream to help cool off during a hot summer day.

"We opened our doors at 10:30 (Monday morning) and our first customer came in and let us know there was an otter in our breezeway where you come in, and sure enough, there he was. He looked like he was hot and just trying to get into the air conditioning," Lyndsey McDonald, a manager at the restaurant, told the Jackson Sun.

Employees at the restaurant led the otter pup, which they suitably named Blizzard after DQ's infamous ice cream treats, to the back dock area, where they filled a storage container with water for him to swim, fed him grilled chicken, and even gave him some vanilla ice cream before calling the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). According to a Facebook post from the Brownsville Dairy Queen, Blizzard became so attached to McDonald that he followed her around.

"I'm allergic to animals, so I don't have much to do with them, but he followed us around and did most everything we told him to, like a trained dog would. We wondered if he was someone's pet, he was so good with us," McDonald said. "We called the (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency) and asked what to do with him. My boss, Pam Stephens, is an animal fanatic with a bunch of different animals on her farm and wanted to take him home with her, but TWRA told us she couldn't take him without a license to keep him."

According to the TWRA, Blizzard likely wandered too far from the Hatchie River and due to his young age, likely became comfortable with people. He was eventually evaluated and deemed healthy and later released back into the wild.

Blizzard has apparently had quite the impact with customers, though, as McDonald claimed that ever since the story went viral, business has been doing very well.

"He's been good for business. We've had a lot of local people coming in asking about him, along with the normal amount of business we get from people coming through while traveling," she said.

On Tuesday, the Brownsville Dairy Queen was so busy that customers were having difficulty finding open parking spaces.