syrinx

2008-Jan-30 - Might even be an escaped hamster from the 'hood...
2008-Jan-28 - Those little rounded ears just don't look like a rabbit. Looked into Audubon Guide to North American Mammals and the closest I could come was the Pika, but supposedly it doesn't live this far east (New Mexico, maybe, which is west of Texas). It didn't seem to have a long tail, so I don't think it was a vole or a wood rat. I have seen rabbits in the woods before, so naturally assumed that that was what this critter was. Oh well...

Natural selection at work. Critters with these colorings didn't develop them or design them in order to avoid becoming hawk food - the ones with these colorings survived long enough to pass their genes on to their descendants.