"Toxoplasmosis - it only reproduces in the feline gut. Cat poop gets eaten by rodents, and the toxo has to find a way of getting its rodent host into a cat’s stomach.

So it seems the rodents seek out cats, rather than running in fear from them. When I first heard that idea, I thought it was unlikely - that the rodents probably are just careless around cats, or maybe they just can’t run away as effectively when they’re sick. The scientists thought of this too, and there is now a lot of experimental evidence supporting the idea that rats very specifically seek out the smell of cats.

Rodents normally avoid cat scent. Even born-and-bred lab animals that have never met a cat in their lives show an innate aversion to the scent. Except, that is, if they’re infected with toxo. There is even a dose-response curve like you would see with a drug.

And meanwhile, everything else about the rat is normal. Its sense of smell, its social behaviors, its ability to learn, and even its ability to learn to fear things. Its anxiety about other stimuli (everything dangerous except cats) is completely normal. The effect extends to the smell of both domestic cats and bobcats, but not to the scent of other animals they’ve tested, including dogs and humans."

from http://loxosceles.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/47/
I've heard that this virus is also harmful to pregnant humans

*cute

Adding video to channels (Cute) - requested by ant.

so the rat is there begging to be eaten ...lol

Moving this video to arvana's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

*beg

Sending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter arvana.