Rats! Rats.

Two uses of the word. One an interjection and the other a noun. Yes. Rats. There are three that I've seen so far. Do rats make your skin crawl? They don't mine but today seeing them caused me to muse a bit on the subject of rodents.

So I have squirrels in my garden and rats. I had both on my deck at the lake house but rarely saw the rats. And the squirrels were many and very athletic. Here the rats are out and evident and the squirrels infrequent visitors. I've seen two, a black one and a brown/grey one. Both are Eastern gray squirrels, just variants in color. But I digress.

So I was thinking this morning. Why do many people see squirrels as cute and rats as icky? The answer is mostly their tails. One has a fluffy cute tail that sparkles when raindrops land on it. It looks soft and inviting. The other has a long hairless pinkish tail which frankly does not invite complements except perhaps from the rat's mother, wife or children. Though their faces are kind of cute - with whiskers sticking out at cute angles - their tails are not. 

Now I realize that it is not just appearance that makes humans dislike rats and kind of like squirrels. It's their diet too. Rats will eat anything and we are a bit squeamish about those who eat our garbage. (Though crows will do that too and that isn't why some don't like them it seems to me.) Rats also walk all over the place with nasty stuff on their feet from running about in our garbage pails. But then, maybe squirrels aren't as clean as they seem due to that wonderful fluffy tail. Perhaps they have secret eating habits that, if we knew of them, would make us distrust them as well. Just a thought.

Anyhow I was thinking these thoughts and others as I headed down to my support group meeting today. This time instead of being there mostly to support the rest of the group I had my own story to tell, the one about missing Arvin. It's the story I told in my recent blip, having him pop up everywhere in conversation while missing the presence of the man himself, especially the pre-Alzheimer's guy, that wonderful fellow who loved me unconditionally, and vice versa, who always supported whatever I did with love. And I him. That I miss. Yet I am also happy and have light hearted moments. It's an interesting time.

Picked up my Euros today. Made some packing decisions. Sunday is approaching. 

Oh and here are some more photos of the rats and a pair of Rufous Sided Towhees (aka Black Headed Towhees) who were also in the garden. The male, the darker one, was actually very aware of the rats and sometimes seemed to go after them. They also chased him once or twice. Interesting dance.