Justice for Templeton!

Growing up, Charlotte's Web had an enormous impact on me that is still felt today. For example, I do not kill spiders. If I come upon one indoors, I collect it on a tissue and take it outside. After all, like Charlotte, any spider could be someone's mother. Or a hero about to rescue a pig.

Likewise, I do not regard rats as a scourge. Lazy, perhaps, and certainly moody. But how can rats be bad? Templeton was a rat, and he was a fixture in the barn with Charlotte and Wilbur.

That's why I'm upset about the notice posted in the vestibule of my condo building. It seems that with construction on the buildings to either side of us, many otherwise invisible creatures have been uprooted from their usual homes and are settling on our front lawn. Whatever. Everybody has to be somewhere.

One of these unfortunate, newly homeless animals is a rat. According to the notice, we must be careful in the front yard because the Village has put poison around the base of our tree, where a rat hole has been detected.

He's lost his home, people! Must he lose his life, too? He's lived next door his entire rat life and up until now, none of us has noticed him, so what's the big deal? Well, apparently one of my neighbors -- the mother of a 3 year old -- vehemently believes that poor Templeton has to be destroyed. I don't want to get in the way of her maternal passion, so I'm keeping my reservations to myself, but I don't like the idea. I'm also not sure that having poison out front is that much better or safer for children than a rat, anyway.