Wash Your Whiskers - You've Just Touched a Human

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Brave, resourceful, hardworking, fastidious, sociable and a thoroughly loving and dedicated parent - if you cited those qualities to describe a human being, most people would think, "Wow, that person is something really special!" You might even be inspired to try to emulate those qualities, to become a better, kinder and more rounded human being yourself. But this is not a description of a treasured national icon of great integrity and intelligence.

It is your average rat.

The Bubonic Plague

The Bubonic Plague, also known at the Black Death, reached its peak in Europe between 1348 and 1350. The word "bubonic" is derived from a Greek word, "bobo" which means "swollen gland." There are two reasons not to blame our innocent brown rat for the fearful spread of this terrible disease that, allegedly, wiped out one third of England's estimated 14th century population of 3 million inhabitants.

The Bubonic Plague and the subsequent Great Plague of London in 1665 were caused, not by rats but by fleas that were unwittingly carried by the rodents.

The infection was actually carried by the black rat, an entirely different species.

There were smaller, regular outbreaks of Bubonic Plague between 1348 and 1665 at around ten year intervals, but the brown (or Norwegian) rat had nothing to do with any of them. Although sometimes called the Norwegian rat, it actually originated in Asia.

Let's Hear it for the Rat

In his article, "They are clean, intelligent and cuddly. Let's hear it for the rat," Andrew Martin suggests that rats need some decent PR and we should start with the common name "rat" which is misleading and has negative connotations, for example "Love rat" and James Cagney's famous line, "You dirty rat!" Andrew Martin becomes rather lyrical here:

"It needs to be longer, gentler, more mellifluous and right now I'm thinking "Womble." 

Although, as Martin adds, it would be necessary to look into copyright, but there are several analogies between the rat and the fictional womble.

Both are rodent-like creatures with brownish fur and a sharp snout.

Both live in burrows under Wimbledon Common. (And, of course, most other places!)

Both make good use of the things that they find / things that the everyday folks leave behind.

There are, however, two positive representations of the rat in classical children's literature. One is Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, who is small and neat and quite a hero, rescuing other creatures from difficult situations and even death. The other is the friendly rat in the fairy tale Cinderella, who ends up as a coachman thanks to the Fairy Godmother.

In his poem " An Advancement of Learning" the Irish poet Seamus Heaney addresses his own revulsion for a rat with interesting consequences.

Yet, unfortunately, most people think of rats as those dirty, creepy, underworld creatures that appear in horror films in sudden ghastly swarms, noses and whiskers all a-quiver. The rat is not going to live down its image anytime soon!

Wash Your Whiskers - You've Just Touched a Human

Even so, rats do have their fans. Eric Jukes is honorary secretary of the London & Southern Counties Mouse and Rat Club. He says:

"A rat is highly intelligent and will come when it's called by name. They like to be handled, but if you pick it up and put it down, it will immediately clean itself. I mean, a rat thinks you're dirty."

The trouble is, as Eric Jukes explains, rats don't necessarily like living in sewers. "But it's safe for them down there. A rat isn't going to be attacked by an owl in a sewer."

Sources:

"They are clean, intelligent and cuddly. Let's hear it for the rat" by Andrew Martin, The Independent on Sunday, 12 June 2011.

History of Great Britain by Sir George Clark, edited and with additional material by Dr. J.N. Westwood, Octopus Books Ltd., 1987.