When something goes bump in the night

Two nights ago, I woke up at 4am to hear a bag rustling. Living in a hot, humid climate where cockroaches and insects and scorpions occasionally (not the dangerous Mexican kind, however) are part of life, and where when I once went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I saw a huge rat in the corner, hearing a bag rustling in the middle of the night is not a good sign. When I couldn't see anything with my rather dim flashlight, I got up and turned on the lights. Let me establish that I had done a rather stupid thing by having a bag of garbage in my room hanging from my doorknob, and that I had thrown some food in it. Never mind that I was meaning to throw it away soon; the point is, I hadn't. I looked toward the bag, and what did I see but a shadow of a mouse running back and forth in the bag. At this point, I sat up straight in my bed, both disgusted and rather alarmed. Maybe I am a wimp and tend to be overly dramatic in creature situations, but I didn't like the idea of a mouse being trapped in a bag, rustling the bag for who knows how long, and potentially creating a hole whereby all the garbage would fall to the floor and invite the mouse's family to feast. (Yes, this was my irrational thinking at 4am).

Being aware that the rest of the family in the house is sleeping, at this point I was trying to think of a way to get the mouse out of the bag without making too much noise and without getting too close to the bag (touching it was not an option in my mind at that point). Instead, I took a hard case I have and slammed it against the bag. This was the most traumatic part of my story, and the reason that I couldn't even fathom writing about it yesterday, because I do not consider myself a violent person. The bag stopped moving, and then I realized that I possibly just killed a mouse, and not in the mousetrap kind of way. The thought really disturbed me, even though I realize that I do eat meat and I am not always aware of the humane or inhumane conditions that animals live in when they are getting killed. Unable to go to sleep, I just sat there for a long time, contemplating whether I should just try to go to sleep, try to read, dispose of the bag, or what.

Ten minutes later, the bag started rustling again. Fabulous. I still had a mouse problem PLUS now I was disturbed that I had tried to kill it. Luckily, this time, the mouse climbed out of the bag and ran under the door. I put earplugs in, turned off the light, jumped back into bed, and managed to sleep until morning. By the way, the bag is now thrown away.