FAIL...again?

I think my cat needs lessons on how to be a cat. Last Sunday, she's tearing into the bookshelf in the living room at 11am (while I'm trying to sleep between night shifts). The entire bottom shelf cleaned off and spread out onto the floor.

Okay, I think, "maybe she's after a bug." I move the bookshelf out a little. Lo and behold, I see a mouse tail.

Aha!

I put Annabelle on the left side of the bookshelf to keep watch. I grab a towel to start to press it into the right side (it's in a corner on this side). Annabelle comes over to the right side where the action is. I pick her up and put her back on the left side with "You watch for the mouse over here." I proceed to make sure the towel is snugly in place to hamper escape (not that it would necessarily work, but maybe it would slow the mouse down a bit). Annabelle appears again on the right side. I pick her up and put her back on the left side, hoping the mouse had not made a break for it. I then finished cleaning off the 3' bookshelf.

It was time. I lifted the bookshelf, Annabelle jumped in and snagged it. A bunch of quarters dropped on my foot. They stung. Annabelle wandered into the kitchen. She dropped the mouse. It tried to flee, but she grabbed it again. She dropped it again. This time, it successfully made it under the fridge. After that, who knows where it went.

Mousing 101 second try = FAIL!

I really wonder if she knows what she's supposed to do once she catches it.