Most unexpected thing encountered when going down to the basement

I'll start with this first entry, inspired by events last night...

I was going down into the basement to collect the laundry. From the top of the stairs, I saw something on a folded moving pad. I immediately thought "dead mouse" as we have three cats who allow us to share the house with them. After a second look, I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, other than it wasn't a dead mouse.


I called my wife to verify what my eyes were seeing and, after the amazement, this little guy had his photo shoot. We then put him in a hole in the dirt on the unfinished side of the basement and he crawled off into the darkness.




Apparently, Spotted Salamanders are not all that uncommon in basements, although this was news to me.

Wiki on Spotted Salamander