CountryByNet.com Forums :: What is this critter?

Sorry no pictures yet.. I'll bring the camera to the barn tomorrow morning.
This morning as I opened the door to the barn I heard the usual thump of the feral cat jumping to the floor and racing out the other door (we leave out some food and he gets a few mice). Anyway, I walk in and look toward the front (open) garage door and there, sitting on top of the livestock panel gate is this little critter. This is a tube-metal gate.

He's only 5 inches long from nose to tail-tip, with his tail taking up almost two inches, his body about two inches, plus the rest. His head is shaped a lot like a rabbit, but the ears are not long enough, not long enough to flop at all (maybe 1/2 inch long). Its a white-ish, grey-ish brown on top of its fur and dark/black under-fur(?). When he sits, his back is hunched up like a rabbit. His eyes are big for his size and black.

I keep going back to the rabbit idea, except that it was sitting on top of a metal tube gate, about 3 & 1/2 feet off the ground. I think the cat chased him there. When I scared him down he raced around the side of the barn. And when I was leaving through the side door, there he was again, inside the shed (a little room alongside the barn), perched on a concrete ledge (which is about two and 1/2 inches wide) that is five feet off the ground. Just below the ledge is a wood panelling.. he must have clawed his way up there. Maybe still scared of the cat. Can a rabbit do that? The neighbors are complaining of something like a prairie dog tunneling and eating their potatoes, but I don't think this is the same thing.

Any ideas?

Pete

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