My mom is looking for a book from her early childhood that was destroyed in a fire. She was born in 1952 in Ohio. So this book was probably from the 50s. She cannot remember the name of the book. It was probably an early/easy reader (and not a baby book or chapter book).
The story is about a young girl who befriends an otter. That’s all I know.
In The Island of the Blue Dolphins, the girl has a sea otter friend.
Could this be Phyllis Kelway’s ‘The Otter Who Came Back’ (1948)?