The Rat & Me

I’m - fairly - intelligent. Just like a rat.
Empathetic. Just like a rat.
I laugh when I’m tickled.  Just like a rat.
I need companionship. Just like a rat.
And I’m - usually - clean.  Just like a rat.
So why don’t I want to be … just like a rat?

For Rebecca at Fake Flamenco’s July 2023 Poetry Challenge.

My header image comes from Slyfox Photography at Unsplash, and my second, also from Unsplash, from Dave Alexander. Oddly, I have not a single image of a rat in my photo archive.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

44 thoughts on “The Rat & Me”

  1. I know you don’t like fantasy … but: The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents will let you appreciate rats even more. The best, in my opinion, are their names. They took them from tins when they first started to read: Dangerous Beans, Feeds 6, Dark Tan, HamnPork, Sardines, and Peaches, among others.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. It Terry Pratchett (of course, 🙄) The book is called “The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents”. It received the annual Carnegie Medal from British librarians for best children’s book of the year in 2001. It is a book for young adults/teenagers rather than children, in my opinion. They made an animated movie out of it this year (I haven’t seen it yet, it’s difficult to find original movies here, I hate dubbed versions, so I’m waiting until I can stream it). It’s just called The Amazing Maurice (the original title too long or too educated for movies).

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Sadly, I don’t find rats fun. Even though daughter-in-Spain had a good friend at school whose family kept tame rats which seemed to have the run of their house…. Eeew.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. Nice poetry. I believe rats get a bum wrap. I remember Stuart Little, Templeton – the rat in Charlotte’s Web, and Remy from Ratatouille. They were good rats – creative, funny, essential characters to the story.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Love the poem! Rats not so much. Like A Life in Books my main acquaintance with them is via a cat. Usually they were dead before I came across them, but one night I heard squeaking outside the bedroom door which I foolishly opened. Two pairs of eyes looked at me. I shut the door again quickly and one pair was extinct by morning 🐀🐈‍⬛

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. Pingback: July 2023 Animal-Themed Poetry Challenge – Fake Flamenco

  15. I like rats and could happily play with a pet rat, but would not want to have a wild one in the house. I used to know where wild ones lived along my walk into town (by a bench opposite the pizza takeaway – as your poem says, they are not daft) and was sorry when the vegetation they lived in got cut right back in winter.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I can’t say that meeting a sewer-dwelling rat is my idea of a happy meeting, but I know that domestic ones can be good clean fun. I’m still wary though.

      Like

      Reply

      1. They weren’t in the sewer, just scampering through a thinnish row of bushes. They aren’t really all that different to squirrels, which are often called tree rats in Mississippi.

        Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.