My mom has a no-tolerance policy on rodents-- I'm don't get as upset about
them, but Mom grew up in a tenement, nowhere near open space, and when a
mouse appeared, that was a sign of dirtiness and squalor.  She is seriously
horrified by them, and if she spots one in the house, that means *I* can't
rest easy. :P

So when Dante re-appeared early-- really EARLY this morning, carrying the
mouse, I had to get involved.  I had to get up and follow him around,
looking like I wasn't following him around, monitoring the mouse-related
activity, because if I looked like I wasn following him around, he would
disappear with it.  If it were Stinky, there would be a good chance he would
just *give* me the mousie, but not Dante.  BTW, the poor mouse was still
alive, after being through Bast knows what.

Dante chose the foot of the stairs, a partially-enclosed space, and was
doing the catch-and-release thing, much like Stinky usually does.  While the
poor rodent was frozen, trying to decide what to to, I grabbed it with a
rubber glove, and took it outside.

The mouse rodent just sat trembling in my glove.  I put it in the grass, and
wished it better luck.  Then I went back inside and apologized to Dante.

Might as well stay up.