An Encounter with the Giant Kangaroo Rat

The first giant kangaroo rat I saw was fluffy and round, with cartoonishly large eyes. It looked like something that might be big in Japan. It was also long dead—stuffed, mounted, and stuck haphazardly alongside a dozen other, less exotic mammals (a skunk, a possum, a field mouse) in a low display case on the uppermost floor of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Although I fear and despise nearly all rodents, I was smitten with this one. I stared at the fuzzy ball, the elongated feet, posed as if primed for a leap. And, as I stared, I longed to see a live one, bounding on across its native land. This was, it so happened, not too far away from where I stood.