My final verdict on the mysterious creature in Kentucky.

With some input from a friend and further inspection of the photos, I'm convinced that the creature I discussed in this post is a hairless opossum, probably the victim of the same kind of severe mange that is causing coyotes to be confused with the Chupacabra in other places.  I'm hoping that some official identification will be made by a professional, but I honestly don't expect to hear much more about this.  In case we do ever get an answer, I decided to put my judgment here for the record.