I wish the poor creature could have been left alone. Sounds as though he/she was king/queen of its domain. This reminded me of something and I hope you don't mind but I had to share. Five years ago my father came over and he had two huge live crabs a friend had given him at the pub tied up in a hessian sack. He put the sack in the laundry tubs under a dripping tap. Dad was thrilled about these 'beauties'. He loves seafood. I was very upset. I pictured the poor things in the dark sack, terrified, wondering what gives and knowing they were helpless. I begged Dad to let them go. I offered to pay him and buy him a seafood dinner if he would let them go in the river. He said "No. Don't be bloody ridiculous". Half an hour passed and I was still trying to think of ways to save them when Dad came to me and said (reluctantly) "I 'spose (sigh) I can let 'em go." We drove to the river bank. Dad had a this-is-ridiculous-I-can't-believe-I'm doing-this expression the whole way. We got out of the car and Dad used a knife to untie the string binding them. He gave me a look when he cut his thumb with this knife. After they were freed the crabs scuttled down the concrete steps and into the river hopefully wise enough to avoid traps this time. They would fall down one step onto their back, right themselves, and repeat the process till they got all the way down to the river. Dad had such a sad look on his face when he watched the crabs bob away. I was very tempted to sing "Born Free" but thought better of it. In the car Dad was silent but once we got home he made me promise not to tell anyone. I'm sure when his friend asked him about them Dad said something like "They were delicious mate."
