Report 2850: Two friends witness tall, hairy creature drinking from a pond

One morning between 6 & 7am in Feb./March 1995, I was driving west on Baum road in Stark County, Ohio. Just past where (.....edited.....), there's a small pond. At that time, there were large bushes growing on the east side of the pond. I travel that road a lot and it became habit to glance down at the pond to look for deer. On this particular morning, I saw what, without a doubt, was a large fur covered creature. He was squatting in front of the bushes at the edge of the pond and was using his right hand to drink...dipping into the water. A friend was in the car with me, we were going to breakfast, she saw the exact same thing. We didn't talk about it or even acknowledge that we'd seen anything. Frankly, I thought I couldn't possibly have seen what I saw. Finally, I asked her if she'd seen anything at the pond. She described the same scene. We were too stunned/awed to go back to turn around for a second look.