Down the rode from my apartment is a area where a larger apartment building keeps its trash until it is collected on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. One can probably imagine that an area like that probably has a rat problem. What is a good cure for rats? Cats.

I walk by this place at least once a day enroute to the subway station. One day I noticed open cans of cat food and a water dish. Someone has been feeding the alley cats, or ferral cats which is probably the PC way of saying "alley cat." My first thought that this person was not doing the neighborhood any favors by inviting all the mangy cats to our street. But then it dawned on me. Those mangy cats are probably keeping the vermin away. This thought was cemented the day I saw a rat on the subway platform Saturday afternoon.

I saw the animal zigzagging across the platform sniffing about for some food. Rats are very unpleasant, but I didn't really want to draw attention to it for fear that some testosterone-filled guy would go over and kill it. For some reason that bothered me a little bit more. I kept my eye on it anyway while maintaining a good healthy distance. I was not the only person watching it. As more passengers joined me, more people watched the rat.

One girl came down, walking quickly, and headed straight for it. All of a sudden she stopped, and turned quickly away from the animal. The rat saw her too and jogged away speedily with his little rump swishing side to side as he moved.

Suprisingly that was not the only rat I saw that day. It looks like the entire NY metro system could use some ferral cats and a nice lady to keep them there. I am in no way volunteering for that position.