A rat has returned to its rightful place in a sewer in Bensheim, Germany, after being rescued from a manhole cover. And the overweight rodent has captured the collective hearts of the internet.
Volunteer firefighters received a call of a small animal that needed rescuing Sunday and arrived to discover the rat trapped in the manhole cover, according to the BBC.
"She had a lot of winter flab and was stuck fast at her hip — there was no going forward or back," Michael Sehr, an animal rescuer, said.
The entire rescue was documented in videos and pictures.
The team of firefighters was eventually able to free the rat, and release her right back into the sewer from whence she came.
But first, the rescuers took plenty of photos, which they uploaded to their Facebook page.
"Even animals that are hated by many deserve respect,” Sehr said.
As the pictures spread online, the entire encounter was turned into a meme and shared repeatedly on Twitter, with many people saying they saw themselves in the chunky sewer rat.
