Well, it seems that the person who was put in charge of putting the Willard "Pet Rat" documentary together was not a fan of rats. I shouldn't be too surprised. Despite years and years of domestication and despite a supposed increase in and availability of education, it seems that mankind, overall, still fears rats.

My "take" on the documentary itself was that it was added in hopes that the viewer would watch that first because the movie itself really wasn't scary. The only scary thing about it, actually, was the cruel murder of Socrates (and, of course, Willard's vengeful acts toward the rats at the end). And I think they wanted people to have it very clear in their minds that rats are scary despite the fact that they looked cute in the movie. When I saw the movie, for example, I was in an audience that quite clearly didn't like rats but as the movie progressed, they were siding with Willard, siding with Socrates, siding with Ben...and even calling Ben cute! As I said, it really wasn't scary.

But the documentary is scary. Very scary.

Folks, rats do not just chew through pipe for grins. Rats do not just run through the streets cannibalizing their neighbors. They do not clutter city streets because they like to spook us. And for crying out loud, a "street rat" and a pet rat are one and the same: They are genetically identical. Nature vs nurture, kids!

So, piece by piece your friends at Ratballs.com (that would be Nat-human and Andy-human) are going to try to give you a better picture of rat-reality based on the topics covered in the documentary:

• Rats: Scary.

• Rats: Loathsome Pests.

• Rats: In Our Buildings.

• Rats: Attacking People.

• Rats: What They Chew (And Don't Chew).

• Rats: Favorite Pasttimes.

• Rats: Intelligence.

• Rats: Cannibals.

• Rats: Personal Hygeine.

• Rats: Pet vs. Wild.

• Rats: History.

• Rats: Adaptive.

• Rats: Reproduction.

• Rats: The People Who Love Them.

• Animal Hoarders