Rat King

Here's an interesting bit of trivia sent to me by my sister.  Rat kings are said to arise when a large number of rats become entangled by the tail, oftentimes fused together by knots, blood, ice, dirt and excrement.

Well, what a way to elect a leader.  Leave it to the rats to be totally disgusting.  Since there are a large number of you and you are held together by ice, blood, and excrement, why don't we just crown you king?  You seem to have all the qualifications to be ruler, so, please, lead us.

Thank goodness we humans have a more sophisticated means of choosing our leaders.

Or do we?  Let's take careful measures to ensure that our bosses, religious, and political leaders are single persons, and not a number of people fused together by a mixture of ice, blood, and excrement.  It goes without saying that this will require a keen eye.

Don't let this picture fool you.  If you have recently invited a rat king to dinner, chances are that when it shows up, it will not be quite this adorable.