The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld #28) by Terry Pratchett (2001)

A cat, some rats, and a "stupid-looking boy" named Keith have a great money-making scheme. They go to unsuspecting villages where Keith plays the part of a pied piper, offering to lead their rats away. The rats he leads away, of course, are his allies. Keith shares his pay with them, and they move on to the next village. Maurice, who came up with this idea, is no ordinary cat, and these are no ordinary rats. They can talk and read and do all sorts of things regular animals can't do, and they've been profiting quite well so far. But when they arrive at the town of Bad Blintz, they find there's already something shady going on with the town's rat problem.

I have not read any of the other Discworld books, so I can't speak to how this compares, or how it fits into the world Pratchett created, but I found a lot that appealed to me. I love rats (see name of blog) and of course cats, so it had that going for it to start with. Pratchett's style is rather light-hearted and the story was fun to read, quite entertaining, and poignant in parts.

The rats all have names they got from product labels, like Dangerous Beans, Big Savings, Hamnpork, and Peaches. Everywhere they go, they drag with them a book called Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure, which is quoted at the beginning of every chapter, and which they grasp onto because it makes them feel less alone as talking animals. Maurice is rather sly, and not completely trustworthy, but he's smart and he works pretty well with the rats.

It's not all fun and lightheartedness though. There's a pretty dark underbelly to this new village they've arrived at, and the story contains some pretty horrifying imagery. There are crowded cages of rats who are treated horribly, and also a rat king, which is something I have a hard time believing could exist, but apparently does. Still, the personalities of the characters, and Pratchett's engaging and witty style counterbalance these aspects so the story doesn't get too dark overall.

I read this for my Not-So-Young Adult book group, who chose it just after Terry Pratchett's death. It's a great change of pace after reading three downers in a row! I'm not sure whether or not I'll try more of Pratchett's books in the future (do any of the others have talking rats?) but I greatly enjoyed the time I spent with this one.

Happy trails, Nibbles

Poor little Nibbles died during surgery yesterday. I miss him already.

He didn't really like to sit still for photos, but this is the most recent one I have. I took it in August shortly after his brother Biscuit died.

Nibbles had been having some mysterious health issues that we thought was either kidney failure or diabetes, and then he developed some abdominal swelling that was quite alarming. I took him to the vet and, assuming it was a tumor, I left Nibbles there for surgery. I knew there was a possibility that the vet wouldn't be able to remove it, in which case Nibbles would probably just be euthanized. As it turned out, he had some sort of massive abscess on his bladder, and the surgery released some built-up toxins which killed him pretty quickly. Which I suppose is better than having to make the decision to euthanize, and better than having him gradually feel worse and worse.

Here's a less blurry photo of him from last January.

Nibbles was very friendly and social and enjoyed being petted. He also loved people food, from broccoli to potato chips, it was all extremely exciting for him. I really liked having him around. Goodbye, Nibbles!

Goodbye Biscuit

Poor little Biscuit has succumbed to a respiratory illness yesterday. I'm not sure how old he was, maybe around two years. I've had him and Nibbles for about a year and a half.

Here's the best recent photo I could find.

He always enjoyed his snacks, and lounging in that sofa. But he was truly a hammock dweller, so usually looked more like this:

I'm sad that Biscuit is no longer here, and trying to spend extra time with Nibbles since he's all alone now. Rats are super social and can get quite stressed when they're by themselves. Nibbles and I will both miss little Biscuit.

Biscuit and Nibbles

I've had my new rats for about a month now and just realized I haven't shared them with the blog yet. They don't like to sit still for photos but I have a couple of hammock shots.

The tan one is Biscuit and the black one is Nibbles. Biscuit actually paused a couple of times so I was able to get a couple more of him.

Finally, a poor quality one from my iphone, but he looks very cute so I didn't want to leave it out.

These two were from a group of 71 - yes, that is seventy-one - rats brought to the MSPCA recently by someone who bought two rats from a pet store and learned the hard way that they were not of the same sex. Rats can reproduce quickly and prolifically.

These guys are a little odd. These are the first rats I've had who absolutely cannot grasp the purpose of the litterbox. They also don't care for dried bananas. According to every other rat I've known, dried bananas are extremely exciting and worthy of celebration.

Despite their minor quirks, they are pretty well-behaved and fun to have around. I think they like it here.

Goodbye, Turtle

Turtle was one of the nicest rats I have known. He lived a long time for a rat, but I will still miss him.

Bye, Smoot

It was nice having you around.




You will be missed.

A bit o' cute

Just because.

I should read less

No, seriously. It may sound blasphemous for a librarian to say such a thing, but look at this - these are the books I read during the month of April:

How to be Good by Nick Hornby
Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage
Jesus Land: a memoir by Julie Scheeres
Housekeeping vs the Dirt by Nick Hornby
Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene
Confessions of a Tax Collector by Richard Yancey
A Breath of Fresh Air by Amulya Malladi
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Count them - eight books! I'll confess that a few of them were very short and most were quick reads, but surely this cannot be healthy. And I didn't even include the few books started and abandoned, and the graphic novel I read and didn't understand (The City: a vision in woodcuts by Frans Masereel which contains no text whatsoever, and which two of my co-workers exclaimed was "brilliant" leaving me to nod with a knowing look as if I had any idea what the book was even about, much less how good it was.) It was all such a blur that I had to consult my library record to see what I had checked out in order to compile the above list.

At the end of the month, after finishing The Road (which I read because it won the Pulitzer for fiction, not because Oprah told me to) my outlook was so bleak that I couldn't find anything else I wanted to read. Why bother? The world is ending and all I have is this shopping cart and hungry cannibals waiting for an opportunity to sneak up on me and help themselves. You would understand if you read the book. Anyhow, in the past week I've managed to get more done than I did in the entire month of April. I set up this blog, finally found a way to listen to the library's eAudiobooks on my ipod, and made a great deal of progress on the sweater I've been working on since back when it was actually cold enough to wear it. I even spent some time with my new pets. It's like a whole new book-free world has opened up for me! I may just start playing video games soon, or finally learn to rollerblade properly.

But I don't want to dismiss these books as a waste of my time because some of them were quite good. In particular, Firmin was one of the best books I've read in quite a while. The title character is a rat who lives in a bookshop in Boston's Scollay Square leading up to its demolition, and finds himself isolated from his fellow rats by his ability to read and his resulting love of literature. He turns to humans for companionship and after some disastrous attempts at friendship, befriends a failed science fiction writer and they live together happily, at least for a while. At the end of his life Firmin reflects on what a great life it was, which made me incredibly sad. I suppose it was great for a rat, filled with more than most rats get to experience, but it was such a small life of loneliness, isolation, and an inability to communicate with the only beings who would be able to understand him, if only they spoke the same language. The story is beautifully written and if I had a copy in front of me I'd share a few quotes, but unfortunately you'll have to settle for my commentary. Or read it youself. It's only 162 pages, so you have no excuse not to.