Greatwater Lake roped up, rat in a cage

Their teeth scraped and clack, gross and disorienting, and his paw found its mark over her shoulders and back. Except—
 
She gave way too easily, crumbled abruptly and suddenly from underneath the pressure of his right front leg, and her muzzle tore away from his as she went. He fell, forward and bodily, thrown off balance by her sudden disappearance. He felt the brush of her fur against his neck, his chest, his ribcage.
 
He lunged.
 
His neck bent at an awkward angle as he tried to follow her, the curve of her back and tail, and he overbalanced, in his haste.
 
And like David and Goliath—
 
He fell, his shoulder crushing into the lake’s coarse, sandy shores, his legs following suit.