“Hey! There’s a rat back there the size of a cat!”
I said this to a stranger walking towards me on the sidewalk near the Brooklyn Public Library where the city has been doing some construction lately.

“Really?!” the man exclaimed. “Dead or alive?”

“Alive, I’m afraid.” I said, looking back. It was broad daylight, and the rat was ambling slowly down the sidewalk some fifteen yards from us. It had scared the pants off of me.

“Well, thanks!” the man said, walking on.

I turned some seconds later and laughed. The man was down on his knees photographing the rat with the camera on his cellphone. Making the best of a bad situation, I guess. As the saying goes, “When you get lemons…”

Photo by newleaf