Animation Clobbers Position

So I have an object in my world that has its location based on a tagged object in my world. code:

 var objectToFollow;
 
 var onM = true;
 var on1 = false;
 var on2 = false;
 var on3 = false;
 
 function Update () 
 {
     if(gameObject.Find("localPlayer")==null)
     {}
     else
     {
        //animation code omitted 
        objectToFollow = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player").transform;
         transform.position = objectToFollow.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward * 4) + objectToFollow.position;
         transform.localPosition.y += 2;
         transform.rotation = objectToFollow.rotation * Quaternion.Euler(0,-90,90);
     }
 }

This positions the object in front of my player. I have animations that play when I push the specified buttons. The problem is that when I do the animation the position of the object completely changes and doesn't stay in front of the player. The code for the animations fall where the code above says it was omitted.

//code from animation

 if(onM)
 {
     if(Input.GetKeyDown("o"))
     {
         animation.Play("m-1");
         onM = false;
         on1 = true;
     }
     else if(Input.GetKeyDown("l"))
     {
         animation.Play("m-3");
         onM = false;
         on3 = true;
     }
 }
 else if(on1)
 {
     if(Input.GetKeyDown("o"))
     {
         animation.Play("1-2");
         on1 = false;
         on2 = true;
     }
     else if(Input.GetKeyDown("l"))
     {
         animation.Play("1-m");
         on1 = false;
         onM = true;
     }
 }
 else if(on2)
 {
     if(Input.GetKeyDown("o"))
     {
         animation.Play("2-3");
         on2 = false;
         on3 = true;
     }
     else if(Input.GetKeyDown("l"))
     {
         animation.Play("2-1");
         on2 = false;
         on1 = true;
     }
 }
 else if(on3)
 {
     if(Input.GetKeyDown("o"))
     {
         animation.Play("3-m");
         on3 = false;
         onM = true;
     }
     else if(Input.GetKeyDown("l"))
     {
         animation.Play("3-2");
         on3 = false;
         on2 = true;
     }
 }

When this object is parented to the player rather than transformed based on the tag the objects animation works correctly, however that's not what I want to do due to other factors. Any ideas?