Oh Rats! The Story of Rats and People Book

Of all binomial names -- and that includes my favorites, Metasequoia glyptostroboides (for the ancient dawn redwood tree whose shaggy bark resembles shredding by a gang of kitty cats), and Elaeagnus pungens 'Maculata' (the variegated silverberry with the tricky spelling [always appealing to the spelling bee competitor in me])-- of all the possible poetic, funny, and lyrical combinations, the best is that of Rattus rattus. The black rat! (Although just for the record there's also the Rattus norvegicus, the brown rat).

Our outside cats kill about 4 of them every week, so a quick trip to water the hostas can quickly turn into an awful squish under the flip flops. The poor dears! I've given up on burying them, or even transporting them to the trash.

Here's a compendium of rat facts. Perfect for any age, with sweet line drawings and highlighted "Did You Know?" boxes. Did you know: rats can swim 1/2 mile and tread water for 3 hours? they can stand on their hind legs and box with their front paws? they show compassion towards family members less fortunate than they (such as one who's blind, hospicing them throughout their lifetimes)?

Sometimes rats get their tails caught together in one big knot -- it's called a "King Rat", and they ultimately die together in that bunch.

If one rat dies from a poison, the other rats learn from that experience and won't touch the poison.

There are two rats for every person living on this earth. If we learned how to eat rats -- as they do in Ghana, with half the population regularly eating them (better than chicken!) -- starvation might be eliminated.

Oh yes, they're vicious too, and breed disease, but oh my! What a good read!