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Photo: This Gigantic Park Slope Rat Has Eaten Its Last Baby
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 8, 2015
Modified Aug 30, 2018
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 8, 2015
Modified Aug 30, 2018
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Photo by Marci Robin
When you see a rat scurry across the sidewalk, you are seeing a Rodent of Normal Size, but as we learned from The Princess Bride there are also Rodents of Unusual Sizes out there. Watching. Lurking. Eyeing your dogs. Waiting...
You should save your shrieks and 311 calls for them.
They are the ones you hear in the bushes but never see.
They are The Watchers of the vermin world.
They may one day be our overlords, but not until they figure out how to avoid the sharp end of a pitchfork.
The latest sighting of an ROUS here in New York City comes from Park Slope's Washington Park, where Marci Robin witnessed a gleeful Parks Employee fish out this giant dead rat that a local dog had sniffed out. She told us more about the scene this morning:
It was taken in the dog run at Washington Park in Park Slope. The park is adjacent to a middle school with a bunch of dumpsters, so the dog owners are accustomed to hearing rats scurry along the side of the run as it's getting dark. But my next-door neighbor's pit bull, Bianca, kept intently barking at the far corner of the run yesterday evening; we thought it might be at the kids in the skate park section.
Next thing we knew, the park employee pictured showed up and said someone called him about a huge rat in the dog run. None of the people in the run took credit for the call, but we went to see if that's what Bianca was so worked up about. Lo and behold, there was Templeton after singing "A Fair is a Veritable Smorgasbord," except, you know, dead. The park employee picked it up with one of those Billy Mays Deluxe Gopher thingies, and made him do a few dance moves along with some pretty solid ventriloquism.
Sadly, there is no video of this vaudeville act, but footage of the Parks Employee earlier that day has surfaced:
Tagged
carl spackler
giant rat
park slope
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washington park
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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