“That’s the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on! He’s got huge, sharp… er… He can leap about. Look at the bones!” (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Worst part of the film. Everyone knows rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents! 
King Arthur lived (of course, he’s mostly mythological) before 1885, when Brant first described it and split it off from the rodents. Linnaeus lumped rodents, lagomprphs & even the Rhino into “Glires”.
What about a rat scaring (and even attacking)four cats
^So that’s what a rat with toxoplasmosis looks like. :eek:
I believe you are joking.
I was not joking, the rat was the size of a cat.
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There’s a photo in this story of a giant rat caught in a residential area of Fuzhou, China, a city of 6 million.
I mean, it must be true if a story comes out of China, what?
Without factual corroboration, your allegation is worthless.
The story identifies it as probably being a Sumatra Bamboo Rat, Rhizomys sumatrensis, which gets much bigger than any Rattus rat.
There are “rats” of sorts and other rodents that are as large as cats. However, based on available evidence this does not include wild *Rattus norvegicus * or Rattus rattus, the species mentioned in the OP.
Note also that in the photo, the rat is being held much closer to the camera than the person in the background, so it appears much larger than it actually is.
If you really want a “Rodent of Unusual Size” consider the fossil Giant Pacarana Josephoartigasia monesi, which was the size of a cow.
I’ve seen a lot of rats over the years and they don’t usually phase me. This one had me running across the street.
Just because I wasn’t prepared with a camera and a scale doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
It just means that you have no real evidence that the rat was actually the size of a cat. If you thought it was, you were almost certainly mistaken.
I’m sitting here having some chips and salsa, but there’s no evidence (acceptable to Colibri) for it, therefore it did not happen?
Many people have been known to eat chips and salsa. No wild Rattus rat has been documented that has been the size of the smallest known adult cat. The probability that you might be eating chips and salsa is far far higher than that you observed a rat the size of a cat.
Claims that something that is not known to occur has occurred need documentation beyond “I saw a big rat.” I believe there is a reasonable chance you might be eating chips and salsa. I don’t think there is a reasonable chance you actually observed a rat the size of a cat.
Colibri is right. As usual.
(except when we’re debating, of course…)
If I ever have question about rats I’m asking **Colibri **for sure.
I think James Cagney saw lots of rats that were bigger than cats.
(Yes, I know he didn’t actually say … Oh, never mind.)
I believe he is a biologist and an expert in this field.
Is the field the study of rats?
Oddly enough he studies birds the size of insects.