The Wildlife of Runaway Bay, Texas

ONLY 298 more Days!!

Yes, I live in a tiny town named Runaway Bay, and NO, I do not live anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico. Our little hamlet of a town is located on the muddy shores of Lake Bridgeport, about 45 miles NW of Fort Worth. Our town did not even exist as an actual town until the early 1970’s. It was “designed” as a planned retirement community, though the plan quickly fell through. Today, our town has a population of about 1,100 residents, though about half of that number only use their homes on weekends or during the summers. Year-round, there are probably 500 or so of us that actually live here. Our town sits in rolling hills on the south end of the lake. Ninety-five percent of the houses in town either sit near the lake, or on our Golf Course. We live on the lake, while my parents live 2 miles away on the Golf Course.

Much of our “planned” community never got developed, leaving many streets winding through town that have little to no homes on them. I spend most of my walking time hiking the deserted areas of town, on barely used roads leading to nowhere where I have no fears of being ran down by speeding cars as I trot along in a daze listening to Donna Summer on my Ipod. Walking these backroads does give me the opportunity to encounter some of the local “wildlife” that is found in this area of North Texas. My encounters pale in comparison to the multitudes of rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions, moose, and Bigfoots that are often encountered on the Appalachian Trail.

Thus far in my walks around town, I have encountered:

Deer
Cotton-tailed Bunny Rabbits
Roadrunners
Two Coyotes
A large Turtle
A Horned Toad
Flathead Road Snakes (Nicely squashed by cars)
A Tarantula
A Bobcat
A probably-rabid little terrier of some kind.

I have yet to see the creature that actually put our town on the map a few years ago. This would be the mythical “Chupacabra”, a creature usually found in Mexico who’s name translates to “Goat Sucker”. This scary beast terrorized villages in Mexico for centuries, attacking goats and cattle at night, with the Chupacabra draining all the blood from it’s victims.

(Not quite as terrifying looking as the Painting)

This creature has always been like Bigfoot in the sense that it was frequently spotted, but one was never captured…………. that is until someone found the body of a deceased Chupacabra on our golf course a few years back. Now, our town is synonymous with this creature, including our local convenience store/deli selling a “Chupacabra Burger” and Chupacabra T-shirts.

So, I have seen pretty much all of the local wildlife that our area has to offer, though I have yet to see a single armadillo in daylight, but I have NOT seen the dreaded Chupacabra as of yet….

Though I do sense that SOMETHING is watching me as I shuffle along through the undeveloped areas.

Something with a hunkering for IDIOT BLOOD…………

**Footnote** The local townspeople don’t like to admit this, but the authorities did send off the Chupacabra corpse for analysis and the final report stated that it was most likely a “mutated hairless raccoon”. Oh well…… I guess a “Chupacabra Burger will sell a lot better than a “Mutated Hairless Raccoon Burger”.