Missing: One Giant Rat

A labor dispute tool seen now and again around town is "Scabby" the giant inflatable rat. He's found a home for the last month or so in front of the Broadway and 116th Street entrance to Columbia, alongside a banner casting Shame on the Trustees of Columbia University. I haven't looked into the particulars of the dispute, but Scabby went missing this morning. There were a couple guys loitering around the banner and I asked them, "Where's the rat?" (Didn't know his name at the time.) Got a shoulder shrug and "don't know" in reply. Perhaps it's a Rent-a-Rat and the anti-Columbia contract has run out. Or maybe he just sprang a leak and had to be patched. We'll see whether he returns in days to come. In the meantime, here's a photo gleaned from the web and we can all be happy the subway tunnel denizens and street corner scavengers don't grow quite this big.