This is a touching song by some true lover of dumb animals, written upon an occasion when one of them insisted upon sharing his couch:
MY RAT.
I love my rat so tenderly,
He is so gentle, don’t you see?
He guards my slumbers every night,
To keep me from the slightest fright.
No lions or ferocious bears
Can steal upon me unawares,
For there is such a noise in here
’Twould fill their cruel hearts with fear.