Unexpected visitor

Rico says he had an odd occasion the other morning. He picked up, near the front door, a very large ball of cat hair (which Flora, our female cat, throws off on a regular basis), in which rested a long dark indeterminate mass. It all went right into the garbage, but Rico later noticed the dark mass was moving...
Turned out to be a black salamander, rather like the one in the photo, which Rico quickly put outside. It later disappeared, so Rico assumes (and hopes) that it made a get-away before it encountered anything bigger that wanted to eat it...
The ladyfriend, of course, didn't believe a word of it, until Rico came up with a website proving that there are salamanders in Pennsylvania...