I was just in the kitchen... the light was off in my bedroom and out of the corner of my eye I saw something run under my bed. My heart sank as I thought it most likely to be a spider (this house has Giant House Spiders) although it was moving fast. Usually they move in a more stately fashion and freeze when they know they are spotted. Anyway I turned on the light and was relieved to see a small rodent of a type unfamiliar to me. It was larger than an ordinary mouse, compact, dark brown with what appeared to be a side-stripe or a white belly, and rather large erect ears of the Mickey variety. It was glossy. I operate on "since I don't know what it can understand I'll talk to it," and told it I would open the door so it could go outside.

Then I opened the door and came in here. I hope it leaves. There have been several times in the past few weeks I've seen something out of the corner of my eye... almost... then decided I hadn't seen anything at all. After looking up "mouse" (which immediately brought up a horrific spider in about 25 pictures) I looked up "mouse species" and decided it was a white-footed mouse, which is common but carries (as far as I remember) some kind of disease that killed some Dineh people in the 90s. Hmmm, let me look that up...

Ah, yes - hantavirus. That was the deer mouse, though. The white-footed mouse can carry it, too, but I'm sure my mouse is a nice, clean mouse. I would like to close my door but I suppose that will have to wait. Thank heavens it wasn't a spider.

Woo - this sounds attractive to me: The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) dwells mostly in woodlands, river bottoms, and shrubby areas. An acrobat on tiny feet, this mouse can climb on trees and shrubs where it creates a dome of plant materials, feathers, and down on top of an old bird's nest. Snuggled inside, the white-footed mouse can survive and even bear young during cold winters.