Belated B'day Excuses: 200 wd contest

Try a revised, but truthful, excuse my mother gave for taking my brother out of school early one day -

I took a load of laundry down into the basement, when the alligator hissed at me at the bottom of the steps. Now, I know the gator can stay out of his galvanized tub for a few hours, but what about the pen full of breeding mice? We need the mice to feed the snakes, and alligators eat mice. Sorry I'm late, but you'd be surprised how fast a four-foot gator can run.

How did I get it back into its tub? Carefully, of course.