#20-Rats: A Year with New York's Unwanted Inhabitants

I am not big on people. Aside from you all, of course. I find it hard to get enthusiastic for the human race when I'm nearly mowed down every day walking to work...in retail. But animals? (Insert high-pitched squeal here.) I love all animals. I have a particular affinity for cats, sharks, bats, squirrels...and rats. I am in the minority when it comes to rats. I have seen grown women stand on a table and scream at the sight of them. How can you be afraid of rats? They're so little! What are they going to do, tie your laces together? I have had a pet rat or two almost always for the past ten years. They are so soft and sweet and very, very clean. Rats wash themselves from head to toe six times a day. Okay, it's with their tongue, but still...So it is with great joy and anticipation that I picked up Rats by Robert Sullivan. It was written in 2004 and is 242 pages long. It has the best cover yet, by far. Basically, Sullivan sat in an abandoned alley in New York City all night, every night for a year and studied man's most hated creature. His observations are amazing, there is so much here I didn't know, and even a few things that make me get shivers. It also makes me want another one, my last having passed on six months ago. Of course, the difference between pet rats and New York City rats is about eight inches and almost a pound. My last rats were a pair of sisters. I think they were New York rats at heart. They would each sit on a shoulder and hold onto my earrings, like they were practicing for the subway. I highly recommend this book to anyone who isn't squeamish about the little buggers, and even to those who are. I'm all for conquering your fears...as long as I don't have to do it from up high...or on a plane.