I love the creatures no-one else cares for…

Rats of the earth — I welcome you with open arms, knowing that your are fastidiously clean (more so than cats!), intelligent, and social creatures. I realize that you’ve gotten a bad rap…that people associate you with garbage and disease, that your tails frighten them. But I know that rats and people are meant to be together…you clean up our messes, we give you food. It works well. And you’re cute as hell.

Pigeons, despite the fact that city-dwellers love to call you “rats with wings,” I know that you’re a noble cliff dove that has adapted well to the urban canyons we humans have built. You’re fantastic messengers — even war heroes! I also know a little secret: that your name is french, and that each of you have the illustrious title of Jacque le Pigeon. It is for this reason that you always get the utmost of respect from me, a polite Bonjour, Monsieur Pigeon, when I see you pidging along on the street.

And bats, you’re the best. Bats rock my world on thin wings of skin — furried bodies flitting overhead, eating the bugs that would like to bother me. Sophisticated sonic seers, bats are incredibly intelligent and beautiful. Sure, the Vampire Bat freaks people out, but get over it: they don’t want to drink your blood! (That’s one of many myths about bats.) And many of them are endangered.