Rat

Rats are kitten-sized rodents with long bald tails and fur that ranges from gray-brown through black. They are active at night, can swim and climb with great agility, and consume almost anything. Rats often live and travel in packs of a considerable size.

Relation to Clan cats
Colonies of rats are usually dangerous to cats, as they are aggressive and tend to attack them. Episodes of rats attacking groups of cats are described in several books. They also carry diseases that can spread to cats, causing severe illness and sometimes death. For this reason, rats are generally not hunted as fresh-kill.

In the Forest, colonies of rats lived at a trash dump in ShadowClan territory, called the Carrionplace by the cats. The first ShadowClan medicine cat, Pebbleheart, realized that the rats were a source of infection. Raggedstar fought a violent battle with the rats that kept them from bothering ShadowClan for many moons. His deputy, Foxheart, was killed in one of these battles. A single rat contaminated the whole of ShadowClan during Nightstars brief time a leader.

Into the Wild

 * Bluestar, Firepaw and three other cats are attacked by rats on their way back from the Moonstone. The rats are defeated, but Bluestar loses her seventh life in the fight.

Rising Storm

 * Several ShadowClan cats get sick after they ate diseased rats brought to the fresh-kill pile from the Carrionplace. Nightstar and his deputy Cinderfur die of the sickness.

Firestar's Quest

 * It is revealed that after SkyClan were driven out of the Forest, a colony of rats attacked the gorge where the Clan had set up camp and drove them out. The surviving cats became kittypets, loners or rogues. In the caves, the rats scratched the walls, leaving deep horizontal scores to mark their victory and ownership of the gorge.


 * Many moons after the attack, Firestar and his mate Sandstorm came on a quest to rebuild SkyClan. The rats did not like this, and under the command of their leader, attacked the cats, but were repelled. SkyClan attacked the warehouse where the rats lived, and Firestar killed the leader, losing a life in the fight. The remaining rats broke up and fled, never to be seen again.

Midnight

 * The six questing cats are attacked by rats near a trash dump in Big Twolegplace. Tawnypelt gets an infected bite on her shoulder, and limps painfully for most of the time. Her wound eventually heals, after being treated by Midnight, and later by Teller of the Pointed Stones.