Mousing Around
This morning as I started work at 4 AM, I heard a metallic clatter from the kitchen. A mouse was caught in the "Tin Cat" humane mousetrap in the kitchen. I waited until after sunrise, then put on gloves and took the box with the mouse inside it across the street into the railroad yard in order to release it into the field.
When I opened the box, the mouse was huddling in the entrance area of the trap trying to hide. It looked up at me as if to say, "Now what?"
The mouse then ran around inside the box, apparently not realizing that it just had to hop over the side to be free. I tipped the box over, dumping the mouse out into the field.
After sitting there stunned briefly, the mouse made for cover, running for one of the bushes.
I left the mouse to try its luck with the local predators like the small hawks I see in the area. If that mouse comes back and gets caught again, though, I'm going to take it down the street to the abandoned house that is home to a colony of feral cats and let it take its chances with them.
When I opened the box, the mouse was huddling in the entrance area of the trap trying to hide. It looked up at me as if to say, "Now what?"
The mouse then ran around inside the box, apparently not realizing that it just had to hop over the side to be free. I tipped the box over, dumping the mouse out into the field.
After sitting there stunned briefly, the mouse made for cover, running for one of the bushes.
I left the mouse to try its luck with the local predators like the small hawks I see in the area. If that mouse comes back and gets caught again, though, I'm going to take it down the street to the abandoned house that is home to a colony of feral cats and let it take its chances with them.