Yyrkoon, An Old Mate Remembered
By Rebekah Blackwolf




Yyrkoon left to Rat Heaven a few years ago and is still very
missed. He was one of the first male rats I truly got to know and is
definitely one of my favorites. He was a big chocolate brown rat with
two white front paws and white belly. He shared walks in the park
with me, following behind me like a little dog, and amused other
people with his charming and curious nature. I found him to be very
noble and also very generous. We even nicknamed him King Yyrkoon.

He was the largest and oldest of six males – Raister, Gangrel,
D'Vern Da Vermin (Yyrkoon's look-a-like son), Emmon and Conhan

Thus he held the position as head of the pecking order, so to speak.

Like each of his `house mates', he was quite the individual. He
looked like your classic `black rat', as seen in many horror movies,
and this eerie beauty was what attracted me to him in the first place.

Quite often, as we traveled to Melbourne City by train and Yyrkoon
stuck his head out of the front of my shirt, there would be gasps and
exclamations of fright. He was one sure way of clearing a comfortable
space around myself when traveling home on a crowded train. To
comments like, "Yuk. Where did you get that", I'd reply "From a
drain. I saw him sitting there and just put out my hand and let him
crawl on me."

To the more polite queries, I was enthusiastic about sharing
conversation – either about pet rats or Yyrkoon himself.

Yet, he also endeared himself to children who would watch him
from their seats, often asking their parents, "What's that crawling
on the lady?" (The most common answer was "a mouse" or "a big mouse")
or "Can I pat it mum?" Despite the, "I'm not so sure," look of
repulsion most parents gave Yyrkoon, they were happy after my
reassurance to let their children pat him at least.

I was more than willing to let Yyrkoon meet humans of all kinds,
as he was as curious about them as they were of him. Yyrkoon and I
would show them how I could hold the smallest crumb of food between
my fingers, and he would take it so carefully with not even a brush
of his teeth against my skin. And for those whose stomachs I thought
could handle it, I also showed them how Yyrkoon would take food from
my mouth. Yes, he'd stick his whole head inside my mouth and take out
a potato chip.



When I first met Yyrkoon, he was in a pet shop with a dozen
other males. He was rather large, older compared to his mates, and
he was rasping for breath.

The shop assistant immediately tried to discourage me from any
interest in Yyrkoon, as I questioned his apparent problem. I was
offered the younger, healthier sounding, rats, but Yyrkoon was mine
from the start. "He'll be fine once he's out in the open air" I
babbled, picking him up.

Disgruntled and sneezing, Yyrkoon came home to isolation in a
quarantine cage inside and a trip the vet the following day.

About two months later, quite a different rat, he was to be
allowed in the outdoor hutch and soon joined by Gangrel, Raister and
Emmon (who are all brothers) and Conhan (Conhan was incognito,
having been originally named after a certain plant starting with
either C or M, (in this case C) But the name had to change when I
lived as a nanny to small children. `Know's wa I mean')

Yyrkoon soon met Cleo, the lovely daughter of the late Nahdine
(mother) and younger half sister of Conhan.

Apricot and white she was, and sadly she succumbed to cancer about
four months after their litter of nine was born. Three like their
dad, black as a roof rat, and the rest like their mother. I found
homes for all of them, except D'Vern Da Vermin – because he liked to
randomly bite people, especially me.



Yyrkoon was a gentle giant, and this soft-hearted nature was
also reflected in how he treated his fellow rats that lived with him.
Rats have a pecking order within their colony, like most animals and
humans do. Yyrkoon was boss of the hutch, yet he was no aggressor nor
did he harm any of his companions. He protected them.

When I moved from Olinda to my parents in Ringwood, their hutch
was placed in the backyard with the family dog Bianca (a
Staffordshire Bull Terrier X Kelpie). She'd never met rats before.
None of these rats had ever met a dog before either.

On one occasion, shortly after their arrival, Gangrel, my sleek
back hooded boy, was climbing the wire of the hutch and caught
Bianca's attention. Running over to the hutch, Bianca sniffed it
loudly. This caught Yyrkoon's attention as he fed on seeds nearby.
Bianca then snapped at Gangrel who had stuck his head out to greet
her. In that second, I watched as Yyrkoon pounced up to Gangrel's
level on the wire, swatted his friend back to the hutch floor (I
could almost hear him say, "get out of the way boy and let me deal
with this"), and then fixed his big yellow teeth on Bianca's nose as
she had another snap. With a startled yelp, Bianca pulled back and
retreated from the hutch. Yyrkoon hung on the wire for some time
afterward, and I swear he was laughing at her.

I could always leave a spare set of house keys with the boys,
knowing that Yyrkoon and his obnoxious

son, were never too kindly with strangers reaching into their house.
Though Yyrkoon was friendly, only I was allowed to remove him from
his hutch. D'Vern came out when D'Vern wanted to, or with sufficient
bribes of food. Nether the less, they, above the others, were
excellent guard-rats. So I knew I could trust them with my keys:
however the boys would chew their ratty signatures into my key-
rings.



Soon to be joined by Dublin, Loki, Plague, Thorsten, Matthias,
Vincent, old Ezekiel and Laurence (rescued as unwanted pets from my
place of work) the roomy hutch now contained 14 male rats.

Yyrkoon proved himself the perfect host. He would go to the
feed bowl every mealtime and proceed to remove items of food and take
them back to the nesting box. In here is where my more shy rescued
boys would spend a lot of time hiding. Now, I guess you could call
this hoarding except that Yyrkoon didn't seem to care what happened
to his treasures. He never guarded it, he never fought for it, he
never stole it back. It in fact looked as if he would take food to
his waiting companions, then, once they had enough, he returned to
what was left in the bowl and fed himself there.



Yyrkoon showed my friends and me that rats are just as capable
of loyalty, consideration and compassion towards their fellow
species. More so than some humans are to our own. The fact that he
would guard my keys like a well-trained dog would its property,
fearlessly protect his companion, yet tolerate the sometimes rough
handling of human children, proved just how intelligent rats are.

There are many other little tales I could tell of Yyrkoon, yet
I'd be writing forever.



Yyrkoon passed away wrapped in a little towel, lying on a tree
stump in the garden. It was a sunny day on an early afternoon. His
breathing simply grew slower and slower as I prayed next to him for
God to take another soul to peace. Yyrkoon was blessed with two years
of health and adventures with me, and was blessed with a peaceful
passing to the next life.

He was a true noble king amongst his people.