The Tender Rat A quote from Thomas Bell's "A History of British Quadrupeds", published in 1837... "Although its disposition appears to be naturally exceedingly ferocious... Mr. Jesse gives us an anecdote of a rat exhibiting a degree of tenderness and care towards the disabled and aged members of their community; which, were it imitated by Christian men, would either render our poor laws unnecessary, or remove the opprobrium which their maladministration too often causes to attach to them. His informant, the Rev. Mr. Ferryman, walking out in some meadows one evening, observed a great number of rats in the act of migrating from on place to another... His astonishment was great when he saw an old blind rat, which held a piece of stick at one end in its mouth, while another rat had hold of the other end of it, and thus conducted his blind companion." Source: the book "The Story of Rats" by S.A. Barnett