It was raining on Sunday when I took the dogs out for their last walk of the day. It was around 10 pm, and dark on the downhill side of the house, despite the floodlights on the corners. Fortunately, Zeke alerted again and I didn’t step on this fellow.

Salamander? Newt?

I think it’s either a salamander or a newt, but I don’t know enough about them to determine which. It was about five inches long. At first I thought it was a huge slug because I couldn’t see the legs. I have never seen one of these anywhere near our house. I’m not sure where he spends his days, or hides out during dry weather. Zeke also has not seen one of these, so he had to bark at him to let him know who was boss.

Of course I didn’t have my camera with me, but the salamander/newt stayed close to where I first saw him long enough for me to get the dog back inside and go back out with a camera.  I shined the flashlight on him and took a bunch of photos, but this was the only one that was even close to in focus. It was so dark I couldn’t see him in the finder without using the flashlight. That’s what happens sometimes with the point-and-shoot, but I didn’t want to take our SLR out in the rain. That was a good decision, because I managed to drop the camera.

I don’t usually use the flashlight when I walk the dogs through this area because it’s fairly easy walking, but now I’m going to have to use it to avoid stepping on this fellow or any of his friends.