oh, rats

[Ten]

In Western culture, rats have earned a reputation for being sneaky, untrustworthy, and bad by stealing stored food and stuff like that, so calling someone a "rat" is an insult -- and it would be an insult for Starless cats too, but since their relationship to rats is a different one, I'm thinking it should have a different meaning, although I'm not sure what. One possibility is that, since rats are harder to kill, a cat who is a "rat" is someone stubborn and nasty who... refuses to... accept their inevitable demise. Or something like that. I don't know. Thoughts?

[Cloud]

I can think of how that'd be used: "He's such a rat, he never gives it up even when it's long dead." "Ugh, what a rat. I'd hate to get in a fight with him." or "She's such a rat - did you see her in that fight last season? Four cats on her and she didn't back down!"