Cowabunga, Dude!

This one will make your hair stand on end. The Animal Uprising™ appears to be trying to keep its troops happy with semiannual surfing competitions. And they are happening in Tucson, Arizona of all places. No, really. Yes, we are fully aware that there are no major oceans or even actual major bodies of water near Tucson that would actually contain anything approaching surf. But you're thinking in human terms. Small, white rats don't need a large body of water.

All they need is your toilet.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Residents of a neighborhood next to the University of Arizona say small white rats have been swimming through sewer pipes and into their toilets.

Laura Hagen Fairbanks, spokeswoman for the county's Wastewater Management Department, said she doesn't know where the rodents come from, however they are the kind that researchers use in labs.

University representatives point out that the same type of white rats are sold in pet stores as food for snakes and other animals.

George Humphrey, spokesman for the Arizona Health Sciences Center said university researchers follow strict guidelines for their lab specimens. Lab rats are euthanized, then double-bagged in red biowaste plastic bags before they are taken to Phoenix and cremated.

"There would be no evidence that these are connected to us, and I wouldn't want that to become an urban myth," Humphrey said.

In one sighting, Wastewater Management officials said a woman saw a rat in the toilet, left the toilet seat up and put down sticky trap paper in the bathroom. Then she closed the bathroom door so the rat couldn't get into the rest of the house.

Once the rat got stuck on the paper, she threw it away.

Hagen Fairbanks said no one knows why the rats are found in only one small area of town or why they show their faces only once or twice a year.

Hey, it takes time to organize tournaments, you know. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard strongly suspect that the Animal Uprising™ will expand the contests and make a regular toilet surfing tournament circuit. Coming soon to a toilet near you! (Bet you look before you sit down. We plan on doing so.)