Man Walks a Two Foot Pet Rat on a Lead, Then Lets Him Join In While He Cooks Lasagne
A Lincolnshire man says neighbours thought he was nuts when he started walking Elvis, his giant pet rat, on a lead.
The part that stops people in their tracks is not the lead, or even the size of the rat. It is the tiny chef's hat. Martin Critchlow has been sharing life with Elvis, his giant pet rat, and the scenes sound almost made up: park trips, cake snacks, shoulder rides and a kitchen cameo that looks uncannily like Ratatouille.
A giant rat, a lead, and a lot of staring
Martin Critchlow says he gets plenty of looks when he heads out with Elvis, a two foot rat that he takes down the street on a lead. The 58 year old lorry deliverer, from Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, says people in the area originally thought he was out of his mind when they first saw the animal outside the house.
Part of the reaction is simply Elvis's size. Martin says people often stop and ask if the animal really is a rat, and some have even compared him to a New York sewer rat. Martin's answer is that Elvis is a Gambian pouched rat, and that he is not even fully grown yet.
He describes Elvis as unusually calm, the kind of rat that is happy to sit on his shoulder while they are out. Martin says the walks do not quite work like a normal dog walk, though. Elvis will walk, but only until he decides he wants to inspect something else. In Martin's telling, it is less a person taking a rat for a walk and more a rat deciding where the person is going.
The Ratatouille comparison is hard to avoid
If seeing a giant rat out for a stroll is odd enough, Martin has another routine that makes the whole thing even stranger in the best possible way. He sometimes puts a tiny chef's hat on Elvis and lets him sit on his shoulder while he cooks lasagne.
The image has an obvious Disney feel to it, and the comparison with Ratatouille is unavoidable. Videos show Elvis perched up high while Martin works in the kitchen, creating a scene that strongly resembles the film's rat chef fantasy, only in a very British setting involving lasagne instead of a Paris restaurant.
Martin's clips also show just how comfortable Elvis seems in human spaces. He takes him to the park, where the rat has been filmed sitting on the swings, and Martin says Elvis is the kind of pet you can bring to the beach or even into a shop. For Martin, that relaxed temperament is what sets Elvis apart.
Cake, rubbish bins and a weekly fruit bill
Elvis's tastes are another reason the videos catch people's attention. Martin says the one year old rat lives a life that seems remarkably close to a person's, complete with outings and favourite snacks. He has been shown eating Swiss roll, and Martin says Elvis also likes Battenberg and Mr Kipling custard cream cakes.
For all the sweet treats, Martin says Elvis is not especially fussy. He describes him as a creature that will eat almost anything, although figs are among his favourites. He also says the rat used to make a beeline for rubbish bins whenever he was let out of his cage, which became part of the charm for people who knew him.
Feeding the whole collection is not cheap. Martin says he spends about £40 a week so his pets can have fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Elvis is not the only animal in the house either, and the wider setup helps explain why Martin has built a reputation locally for doing things a bit differently.
From Mr Jingles to Elvis
Martin already had a following before Elvis started turning heads. He previously went viral because of a harvest mouse called Mr Jingles, and he says people in the village now know him by that nickname. He remembers that when he first started taking the mice out, people thought he was nuts then too.
These days, he says he has become more used to the strange comments, both in person and online. Some people still see rats as vermin, but Martin says he no longer takes those reactions to heart. He believes more people have started to reconsider once they see the animals up close, or come across his videos.
His household includes nine Gambian pouched rats and 100 harvest mice. One video even shows Martin eating at the dining table beside a tiny harvest mouse with its own little plate. Elvis also has a close animal companion at home. Martin says the rat and his Chihuahua, Rocci, are best buddies, and clips show the pair playing together.
Martin is also keen to point out that Gambian pouched rats are highly intelligent. He says they are known for work in Africa detecting landmines with their sense of smell, and have also been used in efforts to find tuberculosis in humans. For him, that matters because he sees Elvis and the others as more than a novelty.
Martin says what he is trying to do is shift how people think about the species. Instead of seeing only a giant rodent on a lead, he wants people to notice a different side of an animal many dismiss immediately. Judging by the attention Elvis gets, whether he is raiding a bin, sitting on a swing or wearing a chef's hat during dinner prep, people are definitely noticing.
