Rat almost ran up my trouser leg

[OwlHoot]

Went outside to put some bags in the bin, and a couple of rats scampered past. One brushed past my ankle so close its paw landed in my trouser turn up and it had to shake it loose with some difficulty and much squeeking before escaping!

Little do they know I have bought a stack of ten rat traps, ready for action, and the extermination campaign starts tomorrow!

Why can't I be overrun with squirrels instead, like AtW?

[Spacecadet]

Rats and bins...

When living in a flat a few years ago, I went to put some full bin bags into the bin area. Opened the door, stepped forward and dropped the bags in.
At the same time I had the horrible feeling of stepping on to what I thought was some loose rubbish, like a soggy stale baguette, untill what ever I stepped on started squirming.
Looked down and it was a rat, which managed to drag itself off to it's hole before I regained any sort of composure

[Zippy]

I like rats - very intelligent and affectionate creatures.

I've also dissected a few in my time ...

[AtW]

I've also dissected a few in my time ...

[Zippy]

In the interests of science AtW. I haven't always been a shallow software eng.

[AtW]

I haven't always been a shallow software eng.

Just don't dissect my cute fluffy squirrels

[NickFitz]

I've also dissected a few in my time ...

WSS

A Level Biology - sometimes it was a rat, sometimes a dogfish. Dogfish are foul; they often split their own guts open struggling in the net so, when you make the first abdominal incisions and get into the abdominal cavity, it's full of half-digested-whatever-dogfish-eat and vast numbers of nematode worms which live predominantly in the gut... although they apparently also infest the muscle of the fish

To this day, I would never order Rock Salmon in a chip shop

You generally knew where you stood with rats, although one lucky chap got a female that was pregnant - the Biology teacher (one of the best teachers I ever had) was most excited by that and gathered us all round this chap's dissection board so we could see the little half-developed ratlets

I don't think the dissection specimens are supposed to be pregnant though - presumably somebody in the lab where they were bred screwed up.

[AtW]

You generally knew where you stood with rats, although one lucky chap got a female that was pregnant - the Biology teacher (one of the best teachers I ever had) was most excited by that and gathered us all round this chap's dissection board so we could see the little half-developed ratlets

This is so

Somewhere in parallel reality rats are probably dissecting humans. I bet the former refers to the latter as pests there

[Zippy]

WSS

A Level Biology - sometimes it was a rat, sometimes a dogfish. Dogfish are foul; they often split their own guts open struggling in the net so, when you make the first abdominal incisions and get into the abdominal cavity, it's full of half-digested-whatever-dogfish-eat and vast numbers of nematode worms which live predominantly in the gut... although they apparently also infest the muscle of the fish

To this day, I would never order Rock Salmon in a chip shop

You generally knew where you stood with rats, although one lucky chap got a female that was pregnant - the Biology teacher (one of the best teachers I ever had) was most excited by that and gathered us all round this chap's dissection board so we could see the little half-developed ratlets

I don't think the dissection specimens are supposed to be pregnant though - presumably somebody in the lab where they were bred screwed up.

One of my cohort got a pregnant rat and it was awful. I'd just got over the having to cut them up thing too (actually, nailing them down was the worst bit because you had to break their shoulders - they were long dead by this point). I happily chopped up a variety of non mammals though.
I passed on A level Zoology cos you had to dissect a kitten. I just couldn't - stupid bugger.

[Zippy]

Oh yeah - squirrels are safe with me AtW