Spotting

Kangaroo rat is not the right color and is scrawny compared to the image. I feel the long tailed pocket mouse closer to the color and size. It could even be a desert pocket mouse (Chaetodipus penicillatus)

It definitely had an intense hopping movement. It must have been the pocket mouse.

just wondering if you saw it hop or bounce. Most mice bounce but the only hopping mice I saw listed for california is the Kangaroo rat (which is really a mouse) and doesn't look like the photo. But there is this but it does mention hopping.
Chaetodipus formosus
Long-tailed Pocket Mouse

I think this might be a Kangaroo Rat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_ra...