Volunteer firefighters come to the rescue of wriggling, rotund rat

At least eight firefighters peered down at the manhole. Two of them gripped its weighty metal cover, which had been pried open with heavy-duty tools. A man wearing a black tactical vest and thick gloves knelt on the ground, focused intently on the situation.

The emergency? A rotund rat firmly wedged in an opening in the manhole cover in Germany. The chunky critter still hadn’t shed those pesky winter pounds and was having a full-blown freak-out.

Squeaking shrilly, the rat tried everything to escape, wriggling its furry brown body from side to side and furiously kicking its hind legs. The rat was stuck.

Enter a group of volunteer firefighters and rescue workers from a local animal nonprofit.

The elaborate operation to free the rat from a manhole cover — documented in more than 20 photos shared to Facebook and a five-minute YouTube video — went viral, making headlines worldwide as many have delighted in the compassion shown toward an animal usually regarded as a pest.

In the end, the portly creature was unharmed and was released back into the wild shortly after the 30-minute rescue operation.

The mission’s success prompted the group of children who had discovered the rat to present rescuers with a token of appreciation: a drawing of a brown rat surrounded by hearts. A note on the illustration read, “Danke!” or “thank you.”

Before scurrying off, the rat also appeared to take a moment to thank the group.

It“took a small look back,”said Andreas Steinbach, a spokesman for the animal rescue organization, “as if to say, ‘Thank you very much, and, yes, I know I have to do a diet.’”