A surprise visitor…

This large gentle shiny Salamander was looking up at me from the wood pile I had tossed into the basement for a few days of wood fired warmth.
How the little fellow survived utterly unscathed is beyond me. I walked to weedy pond in the pasture near the homestead and released him in the wet edge, to decide himself; go dry, or crawl in for a dip, and hopefully even a mate.