Your post just reminded me of an experience I once had:

One cold windy night, I heard something at our front door. We have a glass door and then a wooden door--the wooden door was shut but I peeked out the window. Nothing there. So I --s l o w l y-- opened the wooden door. Still nothing there. Opened the glass door to peek around the corner of the porch--just happened to look down as something walked into the house!

It startled me and I screamed--Mom and Dad came running! Mom says "OH look Neal, a guniea pig!" And went to pick him up. She had him in her hands when dad said, "Betty, Guniea pigs don't have tails!" Then MOM screamed and dropped the kritter (he wasn't hurt...he was just a few inches above the floor).

Eventually our guest was wrapped up in the door mat and ushered outside.

Turns out it was a gopher. A friend of ours says that gopher's scratching to get in is a common occurence at his house--esp. on cold nights. Guess gopher's get lonely and cold too! lol