Rattus Rattus: a short story on scarcity and abundance

Rattus Rattus: A short story on #scarcity and #abundance

When I was a teen I decided to get a rat as a pet. I named him Rattus Rattus after his genus and species designations.

Having a pet rat was fun. He liked to be held until he didn’t which he indicated by biting your fingers. He was black and white kind of like a Holstein Friesian cow. 

One day when we were going on vacation for a week I had to figure out how Rattus Rattus was going to be taken care of while I was away. I had pet fish at a time in the past, for pet fish we would leave a large time released chunk of fish food and they would be fed for a week. It made sense to me that if I just leave Rattus Rattus enough food he’d be fine while we were away. 

I decided that I’d leave a whole head of lettuce and like 5 or 6 carrots in the cage for Rattus Rattus to eat while I was away. In my estimates from feeding him daily, this would be plenty of food for him. I also got 2 extra water bottles and filled them up so he’d have plenty of water. 

With Rattus Rattus fully set up with food, water and lodging off we went on our week vacation. Honestly, I don’t recall where we went and for this story, it’s not terribly important. 

Upon returning home, I was eager to see Rattus Rattus and how he was doing. What I found was not at all what I had expected or hoped for. 

At the bottom of the cage I found Rattus Rattus, dead. He was as large as the head of lettuce I had left for him. All of the food and most of the water was gone. I was devastated. 

I buried Rattus Rattus in a shoebox in the backyard. 

I didn’t understand why this happened. I thought I had done the right things for him to be ok while I was gone. What I later learned was that rats in their natural habitat (New York City maybe) are built for scarcity. 

Rats are scavengers whose lives are pretty much spent searching for food. If they find food, they eat it, all of it, because they don’t know how long it will be before they find more. Rattus Rattus basically ate himself to death. 

I had provided abundance for something that thrives in scarcity and that decision ultimately led to its death. 

As an adult in mid-life, I think about this story any time a situation of scarcity and abundance presents itself. It would seem that people, animals, plants – life itself – is tuned for an optimal level of provisions. Some life can thrive in abundance, some in scarcity. Getting the balance incorrect can have devastating consequences. 

It takes discipline to live well in abundance as well as in scarcity. It takes awareness to know the difference in the environment and how to apply the proper approach in order to meet the goal, not the least of which may be continued living existence. 

I think about this story now as we seem to be moving from a time of abundance to a time of scarcity. Historically these are normal and expected cycles. To move successfully through either mode requires discipline and proper adaptation.

Don’t eat all your lettuce at once.