what the cat dragged in

It was about 9:45pm when I arrived home from work. I stepped out of my car and made my way across the gravel driveway toward the back door of my house. As I stepped up to the door, I noticed a little ball of something lying on the step in front of me. And as I did not want to squish it, for who knows what it could be, I stopped and bent down to look and see what this little ball was. As I got closer in the dimness of the night, with only our porch light to aid me, I noticed it was a little mouse. First of all, let me say that my first thought was that I was glad I hadn't preceeded, because I could never live with myself if I knew I had squashed a helpless mouse. Then all of a sudden it dawned on me.....why wasn't it running away? So I got closer, thinking that it would recognize this proportionately gigantic being and scoot off into the bushes. But, to my surprise and confusion, the mouse remained in its place. So I slowly stretched out my finger to touch it, thinking that would definately spook the mouse. But again it didn't move. So then it finally computed in my little pea of a brain that perhaps this poor little creature had "given up the ghost." Despite this thought, I somehow felt I needed further proof. So I reached down and touched the mouse on the back to see if it would move, and when it didn't, I immediately felt ever so sorrowful for the little guy. I proceeded to grab a shoe in the hopes that I would just flick the poor mouse off into the bush, but when I gently pushed it with the shoe, this poor tortured mouse squeaked its last! I was caught totally off guard with its last cry for life and my stomach turned with pity and sadness for this desperate creature. I couldn't help but shout out "Oh!!....Oh, no!" several times in a pitiful voice, and apparently I was louder than I thought, for instantly my dad was at the door asking "what? what happened?" I related the story to him, and he did not console me much. He only said, "Just leave him there and let him go." Which, of course made me feel so bad for the poor thing. My stupid cat obviously attempted to kill it and left it on our doorstep. I just absolutely felt horrible inside. That poor thing was sitting there for who knows how long, just suffering and half dead. Oh, the poor, poor mouse!! And he was so cute, too....