When I leave the pet store in midtown Manhattan I generally ask them to tape up the mouse box real good.

As I was putting my coat on as the express bus neared my stop in an outer borough of NYC I notice the people in the row behind me figiting with their stuff on the floor. So I ask what's wrong and the business lady half-whispers "he thinks he saw a mouse!" So I check my bag and go "Oh no! That's my mouse!"

Let me tell you that this lady was mad. The other business ladies I had to disturb as I attempted to catch the mouse were also mad. The bus driver was mad. I finally caught the mouse (really this couldn't have taken more than 5 min). The lady I gingerly sat next to as I was trying to stuff the mouse back in the box exclaims "Oh now you're going to sit next to me with the mouse?!" I calmly responded that it was not that big a deal, to which she informed that it in fact was, to her at least, a big deal. I told the driver as I got off the next stop, this is not my stop but no one will let me sit next to them with my mouse. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life...