As I was taking this photo to show how one can get used to anything in this City, including drinking Dr. Pepper next to stinky subway trash containers, a rat the size of my cat darted out from between them.

I leapt out of its way, barely a second before it would have climbed onto my shoe, crawled up the inside of my pant leg, chewed its way into my right front pocket, turned on my iPod’s shuffle mode, listened to several tracks, made some snide remarks about Neil Diamond, and escaped by squeezing itself past the loose waistband of my baggy jeans.

As I stood there with a big grin of shock and relief at the fate I’d escaped, I could hear a couple with a baby next to me chuckle and say, “that’s a big one.”

(14 St-7 Av Station)