Sam Gribley, the main character in "My Side of the Mountain," doesn't meet a rabbit in the Catskills. Are you thinking of the raccoon, Jessie Coon James? Sam and his trained falcon Frightful meet this young raccoon in the 12th chapter, called "In Which I Find a Real Live Man." The animal seems to be in need, and Sam names it Jessie Coon James and takes it home to feed it. Eventually Jessie accompanies Sam to the stream. The raccoon is good at digging up mussels. Sam soon figures out how to use Jessie's techniques to his own advantage. If Jessie digs up mussels and eats them immediately, she stops digging as soon as she is full. Sam lets Jessie dig up the mussels, but then he takes the food away so that she keeps on digging. In this way, they help each other. The raccoon's stash feeds Sam first, and then Jessie eats the rest of the mussels she finds. Readers probably assume at first that Jessie is a male name for a male raccoon. But Sam realizes in the spring that the raccoon is pregnant, making her a she-Jessie instead of a he-Jessie.
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