Big ole rabbit. Not a cottontail, but a separate species. Sometimes its called a swamp rabbit. They hang around the water and will lead a dog on a real swim sometimes. It's about 1 and a half times the size of a cottontail, runs differently from a cottontail, and has a little solid brown tail rather than a white tail. There's also another rabbit around here called a marsh rabbit that lives in the spartina marshes on the coast. You probably have those on the Texas coast too...Geo