Rescued from death on the street, a shocked baby rat eating Tibetan Bread, burn dump behind Tharlam Monastery, Bodha area, Kathmandu, Nepal

Rescued from death on the street, a shocked baby rat eating Tibetan Bread, burn dump behind Tharlam Monastery, Bodha area, Kathmandu, Nepal, a photo by Wonderlane on Flickr.

Rescued from the street in front of the Bodha Shrine at Lamdre in 2007 Dumbfounded Tibetan bread watching the rat having a bite....

What rat when eating looks anything other than happy? He was so relieved.

I spotted him when Tashi Paljor and I were carrying the Sakya Lamdre t-shirts back from the taxi who refused to drive us into the Monastery because he had another fare.

I helped Tashi carry the bags - I was covered with sweat and dirt so I took a shower - hoping that rat would survive, and ran back to the street to find him - I urged him out of the traffic into the foot traffic - he tried valiantly to enter the gate - but there were too many feet and he could not see well enough - it was all moving too fast, too loud, and no safety.

He was just a baby, and could only hop. He had hopped into a concrete corner right next to the entrance to the shrine - under the gate to the right where the coolies sit. He was terrified of the foot traffic and vehicles. They didn't even notice him.

He was badly dehydrated.

So I asked to borrow you know a small black garbage bag - and sure enough through hand signs and intuition one guy right above the rat pulled out a small - to medium sized black thin garbage bag. I move him aside, and when they saw the rat - well you know what would happen. They are as non-violent as I am, an old meat eater.

Between the coolies and me we urged the rat right into the bag, in sort of motherly commanding tone, I said - get into the black bag, it is safe there. He hopped in. Then I carried him, like a turd, away from me, around the stupa 3/4's and to the garbage dump behind the Monastery where he could feast on blessed bread and slightly rotten orange juice which I dripped onto him from above like some freakie good tasting mana-rain.

I was afraid that it wasn't going to be enough when I carried him to the garbage dump - he didn't respond for a long time.

www.ratbehavior.org/RatYears.htm

Apparently rats see color much differently that do we if you explore that site. They smell things real good though, which is what happened when I soaked this bread piece in orange juice and placed it right in front of his nose, dripping orange juice on him.

By now I thought he may have died, but at least he had a better life. If he is still alive, he is a wise old rat.

Update: World notifier - the day he died he thought of me, and remembered his life - it was raining in Boudha - I saw his wet street through his fond eyes. Since it was raining in the vision I checked it online and indeed it was raining just like he showed me it was. That rat had it so good he lived a very long time for a rat.