In Seattle, where I grew up, the rats excel at climbing sewer pipes—from the inside. Somewhere in my hometown right now, a long, wet Norway rat is poking its twitchy pink nose above the water ...

For many years I have thought [Diouf] was the gutter type - I was going to call him a sewer rat but that might be insulting to sewer rats. 'I think he is the lowest of the low and I can't see him ...

The manhole cover gets pushed up in the air, and you just get a torrent of faeces, used tampons, nappies, dead rats - they all come ... to reports of external sewer flooding on Sandcliff Road ...