Cousins

Indy let me know at 4 a.m. that she wanted to go out. A little too early to wake up so we padded to the front door and I let her out.  I'd wait until she was ready to come back in and then go back to bed.  I heard an irregular bumping coming from the direction of my garage.  Had I not closed the garage door or maybe left the dog door open?  I went into the garage to check.  The noise was coming from a stack of 5 gallon pails.  A small creature was in the top one and jumping up the side trying to get out.  Didn't want to deal w/ it while I was sleepy and Indy was ready to come  in.  I went back to bed.  In the morning, I checked the pail.  A little mouse was laying quiet in the bottom.  I took the pail outside and gave it a little toss onto a snow bank so it fell on it's side.  Soon a nose followed by ears came into view.  I checked back later and the pail was empty.  Yeah, I'd considered that the cats would love to play w/ it and, by letting it go, there is a fair chance the critter will find it's way back into the garage.  Just couldn't kill it - after all, it's Christmas.