Rats fueled the black plague

So...wild rats give me the creeps.
I had pet rats when I was a kid, and really loved them. They were good pets. They were initially white, but we had this green bedding at the bottom of the cage and it got wet and they turned florescent green. They were green for the rest of their lives. Pet, green rats. No kidding! When they died we put them in shoe boxes and buried them and had a funeral and everything.

But last spring I saw this wild rat very anthropomorphically eating out of my garden...just picking the fruit off with it's hands. I was screeching and freaking out...wanting to stand up on the furniture even though I was inside and she was outside. I was only looking at her through the glass door. It was an unreasonable response.

Before I actually saw her in my garden, when someone suggested that a rat might be the culprit (eating the fruit) I thought..."well, rats have to eat. They're living things. We can share." I so want to be a pantheist...I fantasize about being able to be a pantheist...but I'm really agnostic to the core. I just can't truly accept anything other than not knowing. Sort of beside the point...back to the rats. Anyway, I ended up pulling up all the plants with fruit, planting mint around the garden (to deter them) and starting over. See...not even a good wanna be pantheist.

I saw this movie once...I can't remember what it was...where this single mom and her baby were living in this run down apartment and she woke up to see a rat (right beside her sleeping baby) drinking, again anthropomorphically, the milk out of her baby's bottle! We are supposed to think anthropomorphic is cute...this struck me...look at the cute animal holding the baby bottle and drinking! Unless they are disease carrying rodents I guess! Uuuugh.... I just shudder when I think about it.

A friend had a rat problem in their home recently (and shared about it). I can't stop thinking about it. What a nightmare! Makes me want to get more cats...Cats don't want to be pantheist when they are really agnostic. Let them do my dirty work and keep the rats out of my compost pile and garden! Yuck, yuck, yuck!