Hello! Having exhausted my Google-image-searching powers, I'd like to turn to you wonderful people for help. My father has seen the animal in question twice now, fleeing into the bushes, just after dusk. I will try to present the animal's characteristics as described; I am sorry for vagueness.

The animal is perhaps nine inches in length, and has short grey hair. Its legs are extremely short (mere inches) and its feet are broad, but it moves very quickly. Its tail is a basically just a nub that stands straight up, and its ears are small and not floppy. He didn't get a good look at the face because it was running away from him, but his impression is that it didn't have much of a snout (the general idea of this animal is tubby stubbiness). My father thought that it was a puppy and went traipsing off into the bushes after it before realizing that it was a wild animal, not in need of assistance.

He insists that it was not just a rat whose tail had suffered modification--that its legs were too fat and its feet weren't right for that. Unless there's a miniature wombat skulking about here in Southern California (in the desert!), I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?