Happy Rat-Catcher's Day!
Yes, you heard .. make that, read .. me correctly.
Today is a special day set aside to commemorate the myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (don't worry .. the banks are still open).
The holiday was derived from the date (July 22, 1376) given in the Robert Browning poem appropriately entitled, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" with the intent of honoring all the unsung rat-catchers out there.
Rat-catching, although no longer a form of pest control in highly developed areas .. such as Dollywood .. is still practiced in countries like India (Rajesh the Rat-Catcher .. thank you for a job well done).
In Europe, keeping the rat population under control was practiced to prevent the spread of diseases to man (there must have been a rat-catchers strike during the Black Plague) and to prevent damage to food supplies.
There are about as many ways to "catch a rat" as there are to "skin a cat" (btw .. Cat-Skinner Day is later in the year).
Rat-catchers would capture rats by hand (of course .. a rat in the hand is worth two in the bush), with traps, or with specially-bred vermin terriers (often used in the churches/cathedrals and commonly referred to as holy terriers).
In Hamelin, music from the pipe was used to lure these nasty rodents .. AND the village's children.
In Anatevka, the same was accomplished with the haunting sounds of the fiddle...
♫ Rat-Catcher, Rat-Catcher, Catch me a rat ... ♫ (insert groan .. or huh? .. here).
"Of the animals that move about on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard.." - Leviticus 11:29
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