Imagine how big the sheep get!
For a while they did (and even bigger), on the island of Anguilla, about 125K years ago.
Fire swamps? I don’t think they exist…
I was thinking more like this.
"Where is Eddie? He usually eats these goddam things. "
There is evolutionary advantage to growing bigger.
The bigger ones out-compete the babies for the little amount of food, and more easily break into food containers.
Modern buildings are very protective, so there is no advantage for being small . eg if the young rat is under the building, there is no danger from cats, snakes, etc… if there were cats attacking the young ones, the smaller rat has the advantage of having more holes to disappear into.
They got it just in time. The family was starting to empathize and even identify with the rat.
Ha! 
Damn, shit, damn, me too.
You know, that slight popping sound…?