TIFU by not checking my pockets for weeks and finding...

...a mouse. A dead mouse.

I have never even imagined this is something that can actually happen and I still can't fathom how it came to be, exactly.

So 3 weeks ago I went to a carnival. I wore cargo pants (I went as a postman, original I know). The night ended at my buddy's where we crashed for the night.

The day after, my gf did the laundry (including the cargo pants I had worn the day before, which were in my backpack) and told me my backpack smelled kinda funny. So that went into the laundry as well.

Fast forward to a week later, we went to the hardware store. When we were about to leave, I had a rotting stench in my nose. Just for like a second. I tried to locate the smell but couldn't find anything so I didn't think much of it.

I meant to buy only screws, but of course we ended up with a plethora of stuff so I lost track of my original mission.

On our way back, I realized the screws were missing so I checked all my pockets, not being sure whether or not I had bought them.

I checked all my pockets, multiple times. My gf insisted on checking my pockets as well, multiple times. All there was was an apparently laundered and dried tissue in one of the lower pockets of my cargo pants. We didn't take it out, because why would we. Hah.

That was a week ago. Today I found my pants crumpled up under the bed so I wanted to put it into the laundry. When I picked it up, a stench went into my nose. Kinda smelled like a rotting corpse. I put my nose up to my pants and it smelled fucking abysmally disgusting.

I figured there had to be something in there I didn't want to find. Idk what I was thinking not going in there with gloves or something.

At this point I was still in denial, thinking maybe it's from soldering fumes.

I felt the tissue in my pocket, so I took it out to throw it away before it going into the laundry again.

At first glance, it was oddly dark for a tissue. Then in a split second, before my brain had even processed the information I jerked whatever this thing was through the room.

It was the source of the stench that had haunted me for weeks.

It was a fucking...dead...crumpled up...laundered multiple times...rotten corpse of a fucking mouse.

Our only theory is that when I crashed the night at my buddy's, his cat brought a mouse and put it in my pocket. This still sounds extremely unlikely but it's the most plausible theory we could've come up with.

I'm open to theories, though. Maybe this is something that just happens? Anyone ever found a dead mouse in their pockets? Interested in founding a support group?

TL;DR: Checked my pockets after weeks. Found a rotting mouse.