LOL... well, strange animals do show at odd places.... Just think, in Palo Alto, they keep reporting mountain lion sightings....
The Bay Area has always been Mountain Lion country. A few years back, a jogger at a park along the American River in Sacramento was taken down by one. When I lived in Antioch, I used to go walking up at Black Diamond Mines- and there were cautions about them there.
Without irrigation, the Modesto area is awfully dry and without commercial orchards, not very wooded. There is a river there, but I've never seen any beaver in it. Could be wrong, but it seems a really odd place for them to turn up.
Yeah, like on the Peterson jury, for instance...! I'm glad they bounced that flake. Watched an interview on Fox this morning, and if this is what we rely upon for justice in this country, we're in deeeeeep trouble!