Help! I Think There’s Something Living In My Meridian Home’s Crawl Space

Just in time for Halloween, there is some creepy stuff happening at my house. I live in Meridian in a residential neighborhood nestled between several farms. The smell of animal is always in the air; cows, horses, pigs. There are plenty of birds around too, and I've seen some mice and even skunks. Could any of these creatures be living in my crawl space?

I know that sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. In the last week it has been a windy mess in Idaho. And my house seems like its walls are made out of paper, because they sure seem to rattle a lot with this wind. But I've also been hearing noises coming from the crawl space beneath my house. And I thought I could just attribute that to the noises the wind is causing the rest of my house to make, but I swear I'm hearing foot (hoof?) steps down there. Is there some animal in there taking shelter from the wind? Is that the connection?

Obviously I have access to go down there and check, but that's scary! If there is an animal down there, I don't want to come face to face with it in dark small quarters. Yuck! But I would just like to know and then figure out what the next steps to take. Has this happened to you? How can I find out for sure if there's an animal in the crawl space without physically going down there myself? Open to all suggestions.