O, to be a rat bathing on a lily pad in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden! To wash off last night's trash juice under a clear blue sky, the cricket's song and the fountain's babble providing a symphony of rebirth, where the city is a heaving plastic bag of possibilities, getting riper every minute in the warm summer sun.
Hell Gate contributor Scott Heins spotted our rodent friend around 11 a.m. on Sunday, after they had taken a dip and wound up perched on a lily pad. The rat gives their snout the kind of repeated scrubbing that conjures a bathroom sink routine the morning after an eventful evening—last night was crazy. What a beautiful day!