Comments on: Rat Catcher to His Rats

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:09:33 +0000

Thanks, Dana.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:09:16 +0000

Wow!

Probably if I republish the poem anywhere, it won’t be accompanied by the photo. It was a great writing prompt, though.

By: sarah b

sarah b — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:32:14 +0000

I often find that too much knowledge can be death to the writing of a poem. And I think I liked the picture better when it was a rat killer, not a rat seller! I understand that a bull terrier holds the record for killing the most rats in the shortest time: 500 in 28 minutes.

By: Dana

Dana — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:42:26 +0000

Confusing photo. Great poem.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:39:25 +0000

Googling further, it seems that the popularity of rat baiting in Victorian England meant that rat catchers captured rats alive and sold them to breeders.

Good thing I didn’t do any of this research before writing the poem — it would’ve ended up twice as long!

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:22:49 +0000

Hmm. Maybe the guy in the photo was a rat dealer, not a rat catcher. I just found this:

Mary Douglas (the mother of the rat fancy) once stated that Albino rats were introduced to great Britain by a traveling entertainer around the year 1800. In Victorian times, wild rats were caught in huge numbers for the "rat pits" that were popular at the time. Between the 1840s and 1860s some of these rats were kept, bred, and sold as pets. Pink-Eyed Whites were among them. In 1908 Beatrix Potter published her book "Samuel Whiskers" (a story about a wild rat and his wife). She dedicated it to the Albino rat which was a favorite pet when she was a child.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:57:10 +0000

It is mysterious — I wondered about that stuff, too. And is that a book or a box he’s holding? It all adds to the fascination of the photo, though.

By: sarah b

sarah b — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:21:36 +0000

Of course I love the poem… but I’m trying to understand the picture. White rats? I didn’t think they really existed (except as rarely as an albino) outside the lab. And what is on the dog’s coat? Looks like notes tied to him with ribbons. And those rats look alive… what is the dog thinking? I don’t understand it, but I want to.

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:17:21 +0000

Love it.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:16:34 +0000

Hi Liza – I’m glad this spoke to you as a terrier owner. I actually had “terrier” in the first draft, but decided I preferred the more general “dog.” (Had I not chosed to post the photo above it, though, I might’ve been less willing to generalize.)