4:16

It wasn’t the rat’s fault. It certainly wasn’t his choice. Somewhere deep down in his rat brain, he deeply regretted ever moving north last winter. But he’d been hungry. And the rail car had had such tasty tidbits.

But ever since he’d gotten off that car, nothing had been going his way. He’d been cold, hungry and most especially lonely for months now. And after he’d finally found a warm place to stay, with access to some juicy tidbits next door, along comes this giant bully rat to steal the very bed beneath him.

Not much could penetrate the single-mindedness of any rat’s existence, but the injustice of this situation came pretty close. And now he was lying pinned under this grumpy fat rat with the deformed tail, and he couldn’t move. Not a bit. It was enough to make a more intelligent creature cry. It was certainly enough to make this one whimper.

As so he did.

“Whimper…”