Wildlife or vermin

This rather sweet and furry little chap is not actually having a rest.  He was kindly brought in by my cat Polo, who is just as keen on wildlife as me but is unfortunately a psychotic, serial killer.

Rats are nearly always associated with humans, either in compost heaps, sewers, warehouses or on farms but they are wild creatures of some considerable intelligence and not entirely unattractive.  

They do however suffer from a long association with the spread of human diseases from bubonic plague to weil's disease.  They are very successful, which like sycamores, dandelions, ground elder, bindweed, bluebottles and mosquitoes makes them unpopular.

There is also the mythology such as 'You are never more than six feet from a rat' or 'There are more rats than humans' which persist without any supporting evidence.  This is sensibly dealt with in this    BBC article  .

Well my solution to most instances of unpopular or harmful animals is that if they are in my house then I fight back but if they are out there in the wild I let them be.

Invasive plants and alien creatures are a bit more complicated - worth another post.