what is it?

Question
Lately my mother and I have been seeing the oddest sight usually first thing in the morning. We have two outdoor cats, castaways by our neighbors that we now take care of though my father is allergic, one brown and one orange. Both are really good hunters and leave their typical morning gift to the family. This is normal and not very amusing, except when my dad steps in it barefooted, what is abnormal is our orange cat has been staring at this tall bush in front of our porch. Our orange cat has been "treeing" an orange mouse. And I mean really orange, the exact same shade as my deceased teddy bear hamster. The bush is to flimsy for our cat so he shakes the bush and the mouse will hold on. After a few chuckles I catch the mouse and let it go. I have a feeling it's the same mouse since it's getting easier for him to go willingly into the bowl. Now my question is what type of mouse is this? Most of the picture's I've seen on here that match his coloring are when that mouse is young while this mouse is clearly fully grown so I don't expect him to change colors. I live in North Carolina and most of the mice I see are a mixture of grey, light brown and dark brown. This is the first orange mouse I have ever seen. I wish I had a picture to show you but I think it's best I remove the mouse before my dad removes the cat for destroying his bush. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Victoria,

Orange mice are called Fawn if they have red eyes, and Red if they have black eyes.  It's most likely a gene called viable yellow, but  could also be from dominant yellow (rare in the U.S., and lethal when two copies are inherited), or recessive yellow (on a different chromosome, and does not show unless two copies are inherited).  All of these genes produce colors anywhere from brilliant yellow to firey orange to deep, almost chocolatey reds.  Recessive yellow has a tendency to change colors over time and look somewhat sooty, though this isn't always the case.

In any case, it's not usually seen in wild mice, so it's almost certainly a pet mouse that either escaped or was let go.  It could also just have pet mouse parents, but I have the feeling that if you can catch it so easily it must be familiar with people.  Here's a link that shows different mouse varieties, though most of them are ideals and not all mice of those types look exactly like their pictures:

http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/varieties/index.html

Glad to hear he's outsmarting the cat!  :)
-Tam