Singing Rats

A parable about changing people, places, and things...

There were three houses in a row. In each house lived one man. These houses became infested with singing rats. The rats sang special songs that touched the souls of each man, even though each rat sang a different song. These rats carried fleas, and the flea bites made the men sick. The rats ate most of the men’s food, made nests in their furniture, ordered junk from the internet, and ran up huge phone bills. Soon the three houses were falling apart because the men were too busy listening to the rats to make home repairs.

Eventually, all three men realized they had to change their lives. The first man made up his mind he would live with just one rat and the rest had to go. “Once I make up my mind, I stick to my guns,” He said. “I can handle a rat or two.” Two months later, the rats threw him out, but kept his car and his credit cards. “Don’t come back, or we’ll rat you out to your probation officer,” they told him.

The second man put up a tent in his yard, and decided he would only go back into his house to eat. “That way I can still have music with my meals.” Two years later he replaced the rats with dancing mice. “It was the noise from the rats that was ruining my life,” he said. When they buried him, the mice danced on his grave.

The third man burned his house to the ground. All the rats that weren’t killed ran to his neighbors’ houses, too afraid to return. The third man also lived in a tent for awhile. Slowly, a little at a time, he built a new house where his old house had stood. He bought a mean cat.

 Which man are you most like?     

The Road Way Less Traveled: Starting recovery young, p. 7. ? 2002 by Ken Montrose Free through Friday 4/24/2020 from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8MG0S

For more information about Greenbriar Training and Publications, please contact Ken Montrose at [email protected] 

or (724) 934-8435. 

 Please visit our website:

https://www.greenbriartraining.com