Do you need a cat to get rid of rats?

[True Dough]

Then this is NOT the model you're looking for...

[Solly Mack]

1. Sometimes the rat wins. It happens.

He's still a good kitty.

[Brother Buzz]

2. My puny little rescue dog Border collie, Pearl, the Wonder Dog...

would have made mince-meat out of the rat faster then you can spit.

[Leghorn21]

3. LOVE THIS!!

Thanks, Dough, I LOLed and I hardly EVER LOL!!

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. Maybe they were buddies.

[Doreen]

5. OMG!!! I laughed so hard I now need to go pee!!

I had a cat who ran from a mouse, it actually terrified him.

[gopiscrap]

6. this would be my cat

she thinks that she's a bad ass, but she's actually a big chicken

[orleans]

7. maybe the rat just wanted to be friends and play

i hear rats can be adorable and playful (as told to me by someone who had a pet rat, cat, & dog)

[Rhiannon12866]

8. I had a pet rat

I was a psych major in college and we worked with rats - and I brought mine home. He was always a little nervous after his experience, but I thought he was pretty cute - besides getting me a B in a tough course.

[True Dough]

11. Well, you're an

A+ contributor here at the DU, Rhiannon!

[Rhiannon12866]

12. Awww! Thank you so much!

DU sure has helped me deal with what's been going on since 2003 - I've learned so much and met so many kindred spirits...

[orleans]

14. what was his name? n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

16. Barnaby.

He got me a solid B in a pretty tough course. And that's not actually him, but he looked just like that. He was a hooded rat.

[orleans]

19. nice. my daughter had pet mice when she was in college

(they weren't allowed to have pets and when her three roommates went home for the summer my kid was lonely--even tho she came home on weekends)

7 in total; they don't have a very long lifespan. we cried our eyes out each time one died. they were all privately cremated and my kid still has their ashes in little urns. i remember when number six died i said to her: "we can't keep going through this! you can't get anymore!" and when number 7 died that was it. no more mice. but they were adorable. and they were all loved so much.

[Rhiannon12866]

20. Awww! What a nice story and I can identify!

I also had a pet mouse - I actually was able to take him with me when I went away to school. It was a boarding school and we weren't allowed pets, but he was small enough that I got away with it. His name was Franklin D Roosevelt, Frank for short, and I had him halfway through my first year of college. I was actually late in going back to school since Frank got sick and I tried taking him to the vet, but I ended up losing him. He was also black and white and when I went away to summer camp my mother wasn't a fan so my grandmother "mouse sat" for me. She would give him a blueberry in the mornings...

[democratisphere]

9. Well that blows that theory down a rat hole!

Rats are mad as hell and they are NOT going to take it anymore!

[True Dough]

10. Sounds like the rats

have something in common with us Democrats (at least when you put it that way).

[democratisphere]

13. Agreed!

Rats (and mice and bats) are persecuted in the same way that redumbliCONS persecute liberals and Democrats.

[LeftInTX]

22. Have you ever had a rat in your attic and have it die in your wall?

[lilactime]

15. That wasn't funny. No cat should have to live on the streets.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. I had that exact same thought.

And that cat is black, life is more dangerous for them. Of the 4 cats I've had in my life, 3 have been black, and the last 2 I rescued from outdoors.

[lilactime]

18. Aww... I have 2 black rescue cats living in luxury now!

[Rhiannon12866]

21. Awwww! Aren't they the best??

And I have Felix. He's currently snoozing in the kitty hammock, one of his favorite spots, though he's gotten big enough that I worry. I found him late one night in a supermarket parking lot as a feisty little kitten. He obviously wasn't safe there, especially since they were doing construction there at the time. I couldn't leave him, but he was not about to be caught - two of the construction guys had tried and one had been bitten for his trouble.

My heroes were a young guy who worked in the store and his wife who came to pick him up. He had gloves and she had a basket, couldn't have done it without them! I took him to my vet who said he was about 7 weeks. *sigh* But that was in August of 2014 and he's been with me ever since. Even now, he's not yet a "lap cat," but he looks for affection now and will nap right next to me on the couch. And he's grown up to be a beautiful cat!

[lilactime]

24. So sweet! Yes, they are the best!

[sl8]

23. Toxoplasmosis?

From https://www.nature.com/news/parasite-makes-mice-lose-fear-of-cats-permanently-1.13777

Parasite makes mice lose fear of cats permanently
Behavioural changes persist after Toxoplasma infection is cleared.

Eliot Barford
18 September 2013

Mice infected with toxoplasmosis lose their instinctive fear for the smell of cats — and the parasite's effects may be permanent.

A parasite that infects up to one-third of people around the world may have the ability to permanently alter a specific brain function in mice, according to a study published in PLoS ONE today1.

Toxoplasma gondii is known to remove rodents’ innate fear of cats. The new research shows that even months after infection, when parasites are no longer detectable, the effect remains. This raises the possibility that the microbe causes a permanent structural change in the brain.

The microbe is a single-celled pathogen that infects most types of mammal and bird, causing a disease called toxoplasmosis. But its effects on rodents are unique; most flee cat odour, but infected ones are mildly attracted to it.

...

More at link.

[True Dough]

25. I certainly didn't expect a scientific explanation for that video

but there might be something to that theory.

[central scrutinizer]

26. My cat brought me a rat as a present

She’s pretty small - about 8 pounds but she was feral before I got her from the humane society. She dropped the rat which ran under a reclining chair to hide. I grabbed a big ass channel locks, turned the chair over, shook the rat out and beat it to death with the pliers.

[True Dough]

27. Great bedtime story

for your kids or grandchildren!

[kimbutgar]

28. Thank you got a good chuckle