While casually sitting and listening to the birds chirp, I noticed an un-bird like chomping noise. I looked to my right and saw a furball. Looking at it, it reminded me a of a baby guinea pig a friend of mine once had, but with a rat tail. I think it was the ears. Looking in what books I could find, I determined from the shorter tail, brownish coloring, lighter underparts, and large ears it was likely an Arizona Cotton Rat. For a rodent, he was pretty laid back with my being there, and it wasn't until a Coyote sprang from the opposite side of the stream into the nearby brush that it took off. Fast lil' bugger. He lived to tell the tale, though, as he came back about 20 minutes later, still grubbing up the new growth.
Cotton Rats, if that is what this fellow is, are attracted to water sources and denser vegetation to try hide in. They have litters of 10-12 pups (I believe they are called pups, anyway) and breed year round in an attempt to maintain their population, since they are the bottom mammal of the area's food chain, being eaten by foxes, coyotes, hawks, eagles, and the like. The tail is somewhat shorter than what you'd expect to see in a 'rat', and their nose appears a little more snubbed, like on a squirrel, then the common rat.
Apparently, the Cotton Rat, along with the deer mouse and the white-footed mouse, are known to possibly carry the hantavirus. There have been 72 cases in Arizona total, so I don't think it's common, but 40% of those proved fatal. With this in mind, don't try grab the rodents, don't touch their poop, and stay out of any brush they may be nesting in. You shouldn't be doing any of the things, anyway, at least not at the Riparian Reserve, but here's to you not getting sick.
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