It looks like an abrupt little dinosaur, hair bedding thrown off to wake it. Throw cover back over. Climbing upslope more slowly than fire, scraping through dried yarrow foam, I hear the quick side-changing of opposite hummingbirds. Listen for fire. Skunks nibble on dead ones.
Confusing book sketches dusky-footed wood rat.
Hind feet partially webbed. Swims backward or forward with ease. Fox, cougar, or owl may have got it. Their interesting mouths remain shut to water while the incisors, out front, munch away at succulent underwater stems. In circles of basal leaves the size of many eagle-feather heddresses laid on the ground, hill skirts.