WILDLIFE -- The two victims of an unusual otter attack last Thursday on Western Washington's Pilchuck River are back home and recovering this week.

They include an 8-year-old boy and his grandmother, who came to his rescue but paid the price of hundreds of stitches to her face, head and body and perhaps long-term damage to her right eye.

"It felt like little knives going in," said Lelani Grove, describing the 4-foot-long otter's bites as it turned its aggression from the boy to her after she'd swam out to the rescue.

• See the followup story and graphic video from KOMONEWS.com.

Washington Fish and Wildlife Department officials said they haven't heard of similar attacks by otters in the state, but several over the years have been reported in North Idaho and in Montana, usually related to the otter defending young otters nearby.