House Guest!

Last evening, as Trish and I were sucking up rain water in the basement... yes with a shop vac! Trish peeks her head around the corner of the old cistern where I am busy gathering the water up.  Trish proclaims; "We have a little guest in the house". My response was; "What? A mouse?". The answer was NO!. So upon setting down the vac hosing and turning off the machine, I spotted what I knew as a salamander. I just didn't know what kind.

After checking the Minnesota DNR website for salamanders of Minnesota, we ID this little guy as the Tiger Salamander.  Apparently, they are fairly common throughout Minnesota. 

The funny thing was, was the location where Trish found the salamander.  It was inside a round heat duct that was standing vertical.  How did it get there? And how long was it there? 

Just for scale I include the following image!