Game Object disappears from inspector when I press play

I've added a mechanic into my game so that when the player collides with a trigger a button will appear for them to click, and once they do a player animation will activate.

Here's the script for that:

 {
     [SerializeField]
     public Button enterButton;
 
     public bool enterAllowed;
 
     public Animator anim;
     
 private void Start()
 {
     enterButton.gameObject.SetActive(false);
     anim = GetComponent<Animator>();
 }

 private void Update()
 {
     
 }

 private void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D collision)
 {
     if (collision.gameObject.name.Equals("Temp Player"))
     {
         enterButton.gameObject.SetActive(true);
         enterAllowed = true;
     }
 }

 private void OnTriggerExit2D(Collider2D collision)
 {
     if (collision.gameObject.name.Equals("Temp Player"))
     {
         enterButton.gameObject.SetActive(false);
         enterAllowed = false;
     }
 }

 public void Replenish()
 {
         anim.SetTrigger("isDrinking");
         //Debug.Log("Player is drinking");
     }
 }

The script above is placed on the trigger which connects to the button on-click component. In it's inspector in Unity, I have the character's animator plugged in to the anim slot. The only problem present is when I play the game to test the mechanic, the anim slot automatically clears itself of the player's animator component.

Is there any way to fix this issue without having to replace the player's animator component whenever playing? I'm sorry if I lacked necessary details on my issue. If you need any questions answered, I'd be happy to oblige.