rats

A new legend is born! Meet the hero from Cambodia who's got the whole world buzzing -- Magawa! And Magawa just so happens to be a giant African pouched rat. Magawa isn't just any rat, he was trained to sniff out landmines and has now been awarded British charity's top civilian award for animal bravery!

In the past seven years, Magawa has discovered a total of 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordnance. People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) start began as a free vet clinic in 1917 and has been honoring heroic animals 1943. Magawa was awarded the PDSA's gold medal for his "lifesaving bravery and devotion," according to the charity.

Having cleared over 141,000 square meters of land (imagine 20 soccer fields), it is without a doubt that Magawa is worthy of this award! 

APOPO Chief Executive Christophe Cox had this to say about the heroic act, "it is big for the people in Cambodia, and all the people around the world who are suffering from landmines. The PDSA Gold Medal award brings the problem of landmines to global attention."

But why use rats to sniff out landmines? Turns out, rats are perfect for such a task! Their small size (and weight) allows them to walk across minefields without triggering any explosives. Before Magawa, this was a canine job. 

PDSA also happens to have a Dickin Medal for military service and the medal has since been awarded to 34 dogs, 32 pigeons, 4 horses, and one cat. However, Magawa is their rat to ever receive a PDSA award! 

Congratulations Magawa, thank you for your bravery and helping make this world a safer place for us all. 

Story via The Guardian

Anyone who keeps rats as pets or companions is already in on the secret: these animals are friendly, loyal, intelligent, and very endearing. Unfortunately, they've had a bit of bad press over the years. These are exactly the myths and misconceptions that World Rat Day (celebrated every year on April 4th) hopes to dispel as it celebrates the joys of fancy rats.

We are joining the celebrations with some photos of the cutest rats having fun in hammocks.  

Rates are underrated. Don't believe us? Look it up in the dictionary. 

OK, now that we got that bad joke out of the way, we can continue with our day and enjoy some memes, tweets, and all other silly internet things that make this a quality rat-filled dump. 

So, let us all crawl from out of our dark corners, and marvel at this mega dump. 

Welcome to Rachie's Retirement Home! A private rescue organization that specializing in caring for rats who need a new place to live, or permanent care. 

"We take in any rat that needs us; we adopt, where we can, rehabilitated ones out to new pet homes." 

And each week, they post the most well-behaved rat along with who has been the naughtiest. This isn't the first time animal shaming has gone viral! One aquarium in New Zealand is famous for their 'Penguin of the Month' scoreboard! 

Cong-RATS to the best of the week! And to those naughty ones... better luck next week! You can follow Rachie's Retirement Home on Facebook and be completely up to date on the 'Best and Worst Rat of the Week'.

Fancy Rat & Mouse Day gives us the opportunity to celebrate these beautiful creatures. Not to be confused with wild (black) rats, the Fancy Rat is the domesticated brown rat; while the Fancy Mouse is the domesticated form of the house mouse. Both can be very smart and affectionate and make ideal pets, particularly for children. 

Mattresses? More like rattresses! 'Rattresses' is what Etsy shop owner, Lord Duncan the Rat, calls her tiny and adorable mattresses -- especially made for rats. Unfortunately, the model and inspiration behind these cute mattresses, Lord Duncan himself, has sadly passed away just a month ago. 

This isn't the first creative rat we've seen that has passed too soon. Darius, the famous-painting rat, also passed in early 2019. 

Both Lord Duncan and Darius live on through the creativity of their owners and the hearts of animal lovers from around the world! 

Researchers at the University of Richmond in Virginia have managed to train rats to drive a tiny car with Froot Loops used as a reward, proving their brains are more flexible than previously thought.

@corporateComics is based on real corporate life stories involving two rats co-workers and their demanding boss. 

Stop the presses! This rats cuddling with tiny (and big) teddy bears is all you need to jump-start those heartstrings! We had no idea how much we needed these insanely adorable images in our lives. Rats cuddling miniature teddy bears might just be our new favorite thing!

Pictures taken by Jessica Florence, Ellen van Deelen and Stacey Popandopulo.

In order to properly celebrate world rat day, we have searched twitter to find some cute rat tweets and we did! #iGotRats is the perfect place for anyone who's looking for some awww photos to start the day with! 

What's wrong with you all?