This happened back in my HS days...

It was night and VERY windy. I kept hearing something bang 'n scratch against our front door. (We have a glass door then a wooden door--both were shut.) Anyways, I went and *peeked* out the wooden door--our 'name plaque' was the cause of the banging, but the scratchin' noise was still going on. I finally flipped the light on--didn't see anything. I opened the wooden door, didn't see anything. So I open the glass door and happen to look down as a critter WADDLES into the living room. I immediately thought *SEWER RAT* and SCREAMED---mom/dad come runnin' in to see what's wrong. Mom says, "Oh look Neal, a guniea pig!" and reaches down and picks him up. Dad immediately said, "Guniea pigs don't have tails!" And *plop*Mom drops the guy (he wasn't very far from the ground). Well, we ended up wrappin' a towel around him and puttin' him back outside. He acted disgusted and took off waddlin'!

Come to find out, it was a gopher(!) that was scratchin' at our door to get in! (And when he did get in, he acted like he owned the place--walked right into the livin' room! lol)