How did I miss World Rat Day?

Although I'm pretty much an animal lover, if there's one creature that I just have to place in the "least lovable" category, it would be the rat.

City dweller that I am, a rat is a big, ugly sewer-dwelling, basement- invading, toilet-swimming, garbage-bag-gnawing bit of nastiness. (I've never actually had one come up out of the toilet, but I do know that the possibility is NOT an urban legend. We have special traps in our toilet pipes that help prevent that possibility.)

I've even had rats hanging out in my car engine.

So rats to me are just plain hideous.

Well, apparently everyone doesn't share my feelings about this particular rodent, as I learned from a recent Boston Globe article on the observance of World Rat Day.

I'll have to let my sister Trish know that the local observance was held in her town of Salem, Mass. (I just hope it wasn't in her neighborhood. They've had skunks - including a rabid one - in the 'hood. They've had raccoons - including the family that lived in my friend Shelly's rooftop patio. In their house, they've had goody-nibbling mice. But rats. Rats aren't EEEEKKK. They're OMG! DO SOMETHING!

I'll be on the lookout for the house where Rat Day was celebrated. It's the one with the Rat X-ing sign on the door.

Rat fans, of course, take a far more benevolent view of rats than I do. And there are apparently a lot of rat fans - at least according to the National Alternative Pet Association, which claims that there are rat clubs throughout the US, as well as in England, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia.

Rat fanciers - do they have their own Rat Fancy mag, like Dog Fancy and Cat Fancy? - find rats "good natured", "sweet," and "affectionate." They let them perch on their shoulders, and nuzzle their ears, "scurry in frenetic spirals around hips, curl up in laps, burrow into sweat shirts, or sniff their way up and down arms."

And we're not just talking pink-eyed, kindly little white lab rats here - we're talking brown rats. But apparently they're not culled from the sewers, "domestic" rats are:

...systematically bred for size, color, shape, and temperament, according to Dale Taylor, vice president of the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association. From such genetic tinkering, many types have evolved: hairless, tail-less, "Dumbo"-style with large, round ears, and others possessing crimped hair or spots, Taylor said.

I'm not sure about that "hairless", but "'Dumbo'-style" sounds kind of cute.

Still I must consider the source....and I do have to ask myself whether these burrow-enabling folks have heard of the bubonic plague.

They're also litter-box trainable, thus enabling one proud possessor of 17 rats the run of her home. (This pet owner got into rats when she adopted a couple of what are called "feeder rats". You know, the ones that get eaten alive by pet snakes. Anyway, she felt bad for them, and the rest is history. Of course, if I had to pick between adopting a rat-devouring snake and the rat itself, I believe I would be forced to go for the rat. Better a snuggler than something that I might find slithering across my forehead in the middle of the night.)

Rat Day, of course, has it's own www, where I learned that World Rat Day has been celebrated (?) since 2002, and that I am apparently something of a rat bigot, one of those benighted souls who are responsible for the fact that the rat's "image suffers from ignorance and unthinking prejudice."

(Well, no, my prejudice is actually quite well thought through, thank you.)

According to the WRD site, rats are "imminently lovable", so the rat folks must be anticipating some breakthrough soon. Maybe they thought Rat Day was going to do the trick. Maybe it did. Maybe I'm the lone holdout.

The site includes some mottos contributed (presumably) by members.

Rats are like potato chips;
you can't have just one!
-Amber-

Rats the dog of tomorrow
-Albert-

Got Rat?
-Allison-

Want a really gRATifying pet?
Get rats!
-Heidi-

Rat Here RAT NOW
-miranda-

Charlie thinks that rats are the "pets of the future."

And Jane, for whatever reason, says:

Rats make good pests!

I'm not so sure they make good pests, but I'm definitely down with the pests part.

As with most groups, rat lovers have their own lingo.

There's rat raisins. Unlike potato chips, you would probably stop even before you had just one. (Good thing that the critters are litter-boxed.)

Then there's ratballs, a topic that even commands its own site of folks kvelling about the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of, well, ratballs.

Goodness, gracious, great balls of rat!