Many people enjoy jogging early in the morning, when the mist still clings to the trees and tall grass that line the roadside. Cardinals and Carolina wrens have just begun singing their wake-up calls to the sun. A family of deer gathers at the edge of the woods lining the pasture. God is in heaven and all is right with the world.

Not today. Two hundred yards ahead, on the only road leading home, looms a huge, dark, teeming mass of something alive and menacing, stretching from one side of the road to the other. In the dim light of pre-dawn it looks like a creature from one of those late night fright movies on television. Going around it is impossible. There is swamp land on each side. Who knows what terrible, slimy creatures lie in wait just beneath those scummy waters? Turning back means an…