So last night Wheaten caught a mouse. I am less disturbed by the mouse than the snake he once caught (I thought I journalled that, though now I can't find it), even if the snake was a harmless garden snake, and even though I know this mouse is a relatively harmless fieldmouse. (I am doing the mom-like over-worry thing though, wondering what diseases the thing could be carrying, and no, let's not send me the cdc sites... I mean, the cats and dogs I had growing up caught mice and voles and moles all the time, and they survived.) The snake was put outside by Sean, but I wound up grabbing and putting out the mouse. (I was a bit torn -- won't the mouse just come back to the house if it survives? But I took it about 50 feet away across a parking area and dropped it in cool grasses near a ditch, so hopefully it will go elsewhere.)

Of course, watching Wheaten was fascinating, and I think he actually hissed at it a couple times as he was waiting for it to move again, which is funny because Wheaten never hisses. The mouse moved by hopping -- with muscular back legs, reminding me a bit of cartoon kangaroos (it sat on those back legs with its paws up as its natural at rest spot, like a squirrel or chimpmunk does). About 3 inches or so of body and two inches of tail, I think. Rounded ears. I think he was brownish, but now I'm not positive on that one. (We're in eastern North America.) I think "field mouse" but anyone know what that type of mouse that really is? (Or are there too many that fit that general description to know?)