Wha...?

Geeze. Almost a month without blogging. Many, many deadlines to meet in the real realm. I have re-discovered the world beyond the screen... I explored the jungle that my garden had become to find that an interesting melange of furry creatures had created their own subway system underneath.
Then there was the THING.
From my vantage point (about 40' away), it appeared to be between about 12" long, rather chubby, with quite the prehensile tail, quite black and quite fuzzy. Never did see its head or ears. It was about the size of a woodchuck, with a bit less waddle. I was rather concerned it was a RAT (of a size I hadn't seen since I worked in Hartford), but the rats I had seen were always grey, not black.
I called agricultural extension and told the gentleman on the phone that if I had a saddle, I would have ridden it down there. He countered that a photo would suffice. Unfortunately, El Fuzzo (the thing, not the gentleman at agricultural extension) wouldn't pose.
The expert opinion: perhaps a muskrat commuted from the river (not too far) or from the nearby swamps/wetlands (even closer-- we had a turtle in the yard back in May).
I think a muskrat is preferable to a rat-rat.