The creature lumbered along the highway's white marker as if it felt that safety lay straight ahead in the least unobstructed path. In Jeff's estimation such logic made it just another dumb animal fit for the hunt. Tonight's kill would be easy because whatever it was, its legs were short and its movements slow.

It mattered little to Jeff if the weapon were his sporting rifle or his half-ton pickup. Today he had already emptied a chamber into four squirrels without leaving the pickup, just to get in a little target practice. Shooting them or steering into them, it was all the same. "Huntin's huntin'," he said if asked about the big pile of animal remains in the back of his truck.

But no one ever asked because Jeff was only a man doing the job Richard paid him to do. Six months earlier Mayor Jamal had given himself one hell of a task choosing an official title for that job, one that would not make the men on his force laugh themselves sick. The mayor finall

Tonight the cow catcher had surely done its work. The truck had caught its target dead center without Jeff's hitting the brake, and the pickup sent it flying. The animal came down on Highway 96 like a sack of laundry, thumped a few yards, and came to rest along the soft shoulder about a hundred feet from where it had been struck. Jeff had to practically stand on the brake to avoid hitting it again, and as he swerved the rear of the truck dove-tailed into the muddy trench along the side of the road.

It stood in darkness, a massive ball of fur whose face Jeff could not see. He saw only its eyes glowing from behind the thick folds of fur, and the eyes seemed to lock with his.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sussex County's, , Patrol Richard, Mayor Jamal, cow catcher, sporting rifle, shovel pickup, pool blood, mouth creature, glove compartment, creature move, fur jeff, flashlight's beam, fifteen minutes,
Approximate Word count = 1619
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)