Rats - omens or entertainment

The last time I had seen rats was more than two decades ago, at the Museum of Nature.

Intelligently looking, slick, brown coated animals were shown at some Critters exhibition as part of the "scary" lore, just next door from snakes, spiders and bats...

This week alone, I had seen two rats, in different locations of the Centertown, looking somewhat like those below (smaller, paler).
An omen?

Brown Rats, John James Audubon, 1852

An image and even a mention of rats was ominous for ages, once bringing a plague with them, other times bad prospects.

Among the accounts of crisis, news of corruption in public services procurement, negligence or fraud in spending allowances claims at the Senate, people loosing jobs and homes,  properties being squeezed out of old and disabled, rich who can afford lawyers getting away with just about anything...
If this is ominous, I wonder what other bad news can seeing two rats in a week bring?
Well, the news are already bad - for the rats that is - as they were did not live long...

Throughout the day the doctor was conscious that the slightly dazed feeling that came over him whenever he thought about the plague was growing more pronounced. Finally he realized that he was afraid! On two occasions he entered crowded cafes. Like Cottard he felt a need for friendly contacts, human warmth. A stupid instinct, Rieux told himself; still, it served to remind him that he’d promised to visit the traveling salesman. (1.8.46)

 Albert Camus, The Plague
God, I love Albert Camus, especially his essays,
I am you man if you wish to discuss any...
 

 Other than pestilence, how about some fun with rats: