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Description
For once in my life I am pleasantly surprised by a drawing.

I honestly wasn't expecting a whole lot from this pic, seeing as I rarely draw animals. But I think it came out pretty well, considering. It actually looks like a rat and not a mouse, too, which is a problem I have with may illustrated editions of The Wind in the Willows, for instance. In fact, the only things I can remember where the rats actually looked like rats was "The Secret of NIMH" and to a certain extent "The Great Mouse Detective".

Anyway, this is Thaddeus Longtail, a clever and well-bred gentlerat who was supposed to be the main character/narrator of a kid's book called Queen Victoria's Rat, which was going to be my NaNoWriMo project before I decided I didn't have enough time. Either that, or the as-yet-nameless wizard!Vergil book. Anyway, it was loosely based on the history of the rat fancy -- Thaddeus (and his sister, Emily Longtail) fall in with Jack Black, Queen Victoria's rat-catcher (who was the first person to domesticate the rat, historically); they get involved in vermin and human intrigue; Thaddeus falls in love with Adelaide, Jack's pet albino rat (the first one ever); Thaddeus saves the British Empire by preventing the Parliament of Ravens from leaving the Tower of London, thus dooming the Empire to ruin. Yay. There was also a slightly crazy mouse named Leopold, who lived in a toy shop; Maggs the cat, with whom Thaddeus has a bit of a racket; a murderous terrier; and of course Horace and Vergil Blackear, a pair of library-dwelling rats who are what I fancy my little ratlings would be like, if they could talk.

I figured I wanted to do for rats what Charlotte's Web did for spiders.

Description
For once in my life I am pleasantly surprised by a drawing.

I honestly wasn't expecting a whole lot from this pic, seeing as I rarely draw animals. But I think it came out pretty well, considering. It actually looks like a rat and not a mouse, too, which is a problem I have with may illustrated editions of The Wind in the Willows, for instance. In fact, the only things I can remember where the rats actually looked like rats was "The Secret of NIMH" and to a certain extent "The Great Mouse Detective".

Anyway, this is Thaddeus Longtail, a clever and well-bred gentlerat who was supposed to be the main character/narrator of a kid's book called Queen Victoria's Rat, which was going to be my NaNoWriMo project before I decided I didn't have enough time. Either that, or the as-yet-nameless wizard!Vergil book. Anyway, it was loosely based on the history of the rat fancy -- Thaddeus (and his sister, Emily Longtail) fall in with Jack Black, Queen Victoria's rat-catcher (who was the first person to domesticate the rat, historically); they get involved in vermin and human intrigue; Thaddeus falls in love with Adelaide, Jack's pet albino rat (the first one ever); Thaddeus saves the British Empire by preventing the Parliament of Ravens from leaving the Tower of London, thus dooming the Empire to ruin. Yay. There was also a slightly crazy mouse named Leopold, who lived in a toy shop; Maggs the cat, with whom Thaddeus has a bit of a racket; a murderous terrier; and of course Horace and Vergil Blackear, a pair of library-dwelling rats who are what I fancy my little ratlings would be like, if they could talk.

I figured I wanted to do for rats what Charlotte's Web did for spiders.