I'm back! Well, I guess I've been posting during my vacation anyway, but I am back at work. To help celebrate, reader Teresa S. sends word of a new rodent: "Local farmers and hunters trapped or snared the animals, which they also referred to as rock rats, slaughtered them and took them to market. The adults have bodies about a foot long, with a six-inch tail that is not as bushy as a squirrel's. They knew immediately that this was, as Dr. Timmins said, 'an oddball rodent.'"