When the news is filled with what seems like never-ending political discourse and general doom and gloom, you yearn for news about simpler and happier things in life. I think that’s why everyone loves heartwarming animal stories. For me, it’s even better if the story is about rats. It’s difficult to find articles that show rats in a positive or funny way, however. Typically, when I see a headline about them, it’s usually disparaging and the article blabbers on about how rats are “taking over” a city and there’s an “infestation” of them — blah, blah, blah.
Every now and then, though, I have the pleasure of coming across a news story showing rats some love. Or at the very least, showing them in a quirky and humorous way.
In case you too need a break from the all the bad news, here are a few fun rat-related stories to recharge your emotional batteries.
Viral Video Rats
Pizza-Loving Rat: Unless you’re never online, you likely already know about the viral video of the pizza-loving rat that became an instant internet sensation in 2015. Can you believe it’s been almost nine years since this wild New York City rat found fame as she tried dragging a pizza slice, twice her size, down a subway staircase?
Since then the video on YouTube, taken by Matt Little, has been viewed over 12 million times and has been featured on late night talk shows, as well as local and national news programs across the world. The rat even has her own wiki page and has inspired countless adaptations, from memes, fan art, a children’s book, Halloween costumes, performance art, toys, and countless other merchandise.
What I found delightfully surprising was that the tenacity of a sewer rat managed to entertain the world, while also getting humans to root for her (based on the video I suspect the rat was a female). I think the only other rat that has even come close to this astonishing feat is Remy from the movie “Ratatouille.” And that’s just a fictional cartoon character, not an actual rat — and a “dirty” sewer rat at that. I bet that hungry little girl never knew how famous she became!
Buddy the Rat: Not an actual rat, but a character created by a street performer, puppeteer, and theater actor named Jonothon Lyons. While in character, Lyons acts and moves around like a friendly (man-sized) street rat, entertaining tourists similar to a mime. Besides a long pink tail, he also wears an elaborate mask with long whiskers and eyes that can blink, which he designed and sculpted himself
Buddy made news in 2020 when a video went viral depicting a “pizza rat man” dragging a giant (fake) slice of pizza around a subway station … and, of course, up and down a flight of stairs. This art performance got Lyons featured on CNN and in many written news sources. Buddy the Rat currently has 169K followers on Instagram and 4 million on TikTok.
Spaghetti Rat: Less than a month after Pizza Rat went viral, publications like Huffington Post and The Dodo started sharing the video of Baby, the spaghetti noodle-loving rat from the Netherlands. The video was originally uploaded by Baby’s owner Maaike Zonderhuis to her YouTube channel in 2014, but it didn’t go viral until October 2015. It has since gained 1.6 million views.
Pizza Rat might have caused a demand for videos of rats with food, but I’m guessing that because Baby looked like Ratatouille’s Remy and was propped on his back while scarfing down his pasta, this video provided that extra “Awww!” factor. It certainly showed non-rat people how adorable these animals really are because of it.
Fun Fact: Maaike and I had already been following each other’s Instagram accounts before Baby became famous. A few of her other rats were actually featured in my magazine “It’s a Rat’s World,” and one of them was the winner of my November 2012 Rat of the Month contest.
Rat Heroes
Fido: Let’s jump back in time for a moment to 1998, when a pet rat named Fido made the news for saving his owners’ lives. When an electrical fire broke out in Lisa Gumbley’s home in the middle of the night, Fido managed to get out of his cage and went running upstairs to scratch on her door. Lisa heard the scratches and was able to get Fido, herself, her two daughters, their grandmother, and even the pet dog to safety.
I’m not sure if Fido went upstairs to purposely awaken the family as the articles suggest, but at the very least he sought them for safety during a frightening moment. It’s very common for rats to run to their owners when they are truly frightened. Regardless of this brave rat’s motivation, his actions show how bonded he felt to the humans in his life. It’s that bond that ultimately saved this family from perishing.
HeroRATs: Anytime African giant pouched rats make the news, it’s usually about the lifesaving HeroRATs. The organization APOPO trains their rats, which they call HeroRATs, to sniff out landmines and tuberculosis (TB). APOPO stands for Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling in Dutch. It is a global NGO that began in Belgium. Its website states that translated to English, APOPO means Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development.
Besides their powerful sense of smell, these talented animals are light enough to move across minefields without setting off any hidden explosives (a threat to over 60 countries). It takes 5 kilograms of pressure to activate a landmine, but the heaviest male rat currently working weighs less than 1.5 kilograms. While this is still dangerous work, no HeroRATs have been injured or killed to date, and their welfare is always a concern.
Other HeroRATs do their work in a lab detecting TB, which can affect over 10 million people per year, killing more than a million of them. The rats are capable of sniffing 100 samples in only 20 minutes, versus the four days it would take a lab technician using microscopy.
The most famous among these amazing rats was Magawa, who passed away in 2022. In 2020, after giving five years of service, the UK’s leading veterinary charity PDSA presented Magawa with their Gold Medal for “life-saving devotion to duty, in the location and clearance of deadly landmines in Cambodia”. It was the first time a rat had ever earned this honor!
To date, these tiny heroes have so far helped to find 162,924 landmines (and other explosives) and freed over 2.2 million people from explosion threat. Plus, they’ve halted 311,709 cases of TB. To learn more or to “adopt” a HeroRAT visit the APOPO website, or just do an internet search; you’ll find plenty of news stories about their outstanding work.
Fun Fact: Back in 2015, I got to team up with APOPO through my magazine and design a limited edition T-shirt for them.
Rats And Their Owners
Marty Mouse: If you don’t already know who Marty Mouse is, then you must be new to rats. Back in 2013, a little apricot-colored, hooded dumbo (Mouse in name only) named Marty quickly stole the hearts of rat lovers on Facebook. People were awed by his adorable photos and his hilarious musing on such topics as his “Internashunal Bizness,” “Space Trabel,” or his “Sock Theory.” The creative storytelling and what is now known as the Marty Mouse House brand, was the brainchild of Marty’s owner, Sarah Hunt, a professional photographer and graphic designer.
Marty’s postings had this organic way of engaging his audience and getting them involved. People around the world started taking part in his state plate challenge, sending him souvenir licenses plates to be photographed for Marty’s internashunal bizness. As his popularity grew, he even got the attention of pop culture publications like Bored Panda and BuzzFeed. The MMH Facebook account has since grown. It currently has more than 79K followers and more than 38K on Instagram.
Sadly, Marty went to “Heaben” in 2015, but his legacy has lived on through the beloved rats that have since come in and out of Hunt’s life. Each of them has continued Marty’s “bizness” and has started their own grand adventures and professions. One of Marty’s successors, Fibbs, even ran for President in 2016. He represented the “Donutcratic Party.” He definitely had my vote!
Fun Fact: Both Marty and Fibbs were featured on covers of “It’s a Rat’s World” and for a couple of years Marty even had an advice column in it called “Deer Dr. Marty.”
The One Time I Was In The News: This isn’t so much about one specific rat celebrity, or even a specific group of rats, but it’s still about rats in the news. And seeing as this is my article, I get to take a moment for this humble brag.
Back in 2009, a year and half after I started my magazine, “It’s a Rat’s World” (it ran for 13 years), a local newspaper reporter approached me. She found the idea of a magazine all about pet rats amusing and interesting, and asked if she could write an article on it and send a photographer to my house. I was super hesitant at first because I’m a major introvert. Also, I didn’t want it to turn into something that was ultimately disparaging to rats. I finally gave in, however, and was thrilled with the result. The reporter even tied in Any Rat Rescue, the rescue I had volunteered with for years, and where most of my rats have been adopted from. It was nice to have the opportunity to promote rats as the fantastic pets they are and to actually be a part of some rat-positive news rather than just scouring the internet for it.
I hope these “rat celebrities” brought a little levity to your day.
For more rat-related news stories, check out:
Rats That Can Drive: Owners teach their pet rats to drive tiny cars.
Show Rats: Award-winning rats at the National Fancy Rat Society show.
Black Death: Rats didn’t spread the plague.
The Chicago Rat Hole: A rat-shaped hole in a Chicago neighborhood sidewalk.
If you know of any other that haven’t been mentioned, share them in the comments.
