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Rats have received a lot of pad press over the years, mostly through misinformation and misunderstanding.
Lots of people say they hate rats, they think they're gross and evil and eat babies. That's pretty ridiculous! DOMESTICATED
rats are clean and bred by humans to be friendly, good natured pets. Comparing a wild rat to a pet rat is like
comparing a Lab to a wolf. "But rats carried the Black Death," you say. The wild Black rat, Rattus Rattus, carried fleas that
carried the Black Death. Please remember that you had to be bitten by a flea, not a rat to get the Black Death. Domesticated
rats are descended from the Brown rat, Rattus Norvegicus. Even if you don’t like wild rats, you should not hate pet
rats, they didn't do anything to anyone! No domesticated rat carries the Black Death, and rats cannot carry rabies (only
animals with canine teeth can spread rabies.)
TURE Rat Stories:
Even a Rat can Save your life!
There was an elderly man in West Virginia who was a coal miner. He owned the mine he worked in, but he often noticed that
he was sharing the dark tunnel with another creature-a rat. This was a unique rat that would always seem to stay near him
as he worked. It was as if the rat was keeping him company-and vise versa.
Over a period of several months, the two became quite content with each other. They had established some patterns that
worked well, and one might even say they had a kind of bonding with each other.
When the miner would sit down to eat from his lunch box, he would always feed the rat some scraps from his own meal. When
it came time to fire the shots that would bring down a coal face, the miner made sure to chase the rat away so it would not
be injured in the blast.
One day, while the miner was working alone in the mine, the rat appeared to be unduly agitated. It scurried back and forth,
running up to the miner, then running off. It repeated this behavior so often that the miner began to get the feeling that
the little rat was trying to tell him something.
Intrigued as to what in the world this was about, the miner put down his drill and followed the rat around the corner to
see if he could find out what was bothering the little creature. The miner had just barely moved away from the mining face
of the coal mine when the roof collapsed. The cave in of the roof had occurred exactly in the spot the miner had been standing
in!
~Ian Currie, University of Toronto lecturer
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I read this story somewhere, but couldn't find it again.This
is about how it went though:
A family in England (I think!) had recently got a pet rat.
Around Easter they were upstairs sleeping when their house caught fire downstairs
in the kitchen. (I'm pretty sure it was the kitchen!) The rat knew that her owners where in danger and escaped from her cage
and climbed up the stairs to warn them.
They were very suprised to see their rat upstairs and when one of them went to
put her back in her cage they discovered the fire. They called the fire department and (I think!) saved most of their
house, thanks to their rat! The gave her her own Easter egg as a reward!
~The Astrololgical Rat~
In the Chinese astrological calendar, the year of the rat takes place every
12 years, for example: 1996, 2008, 2020, and so on. The rat's season is winter. The year of the rat is a year of prosperity
and hard work.
In the Chinese Zodiac the rat comes first because of its intelligence.
In the story explaining this placement the ox was first in line for Zodiac positions, but unknowen to the ox, the rat was
riding on his back. When first place was called, the rat jumped down in front of the ox, thus taking first place.
Metacognition in Rats
An interesting new study that shows rats have the ability to ‘think
about thinking.’
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