In the beginning, there was Pizza Rat. When it came to animals perfectly embodying contemporary identity, Pizza Rat was everything. Whomst among us can say that we haven't considered taking a slice of pizza from the steps of the subway and carrying it to safety with our mouths? Pizza Rat was everyone. Pizza Rat was you.However, Pizza Rat is no more. Make way, then, for a new hero. A squirrel has been caught on the streets of New York’s Upper West Side snacking on an avocado. Just as you or I might dine on smashed avo one lazy, Sunday morning or order it on toast at lunch with friends, Avocado Squirrel is also part of this movement. How millennial. How 2018. How us.According to the Guardian, the video was taken by local Henry Zhang, who was walking his dog in the affluent neighbourhood. The dog was first to notice the squirrel, which is when Zhang started filming.“The planter is next to a street vendor selling fruits and his van,” Zhang told the newspaper. “I assume an avocado dropped from his van or stand, and the squirrel scavenged it.”New York has had its fair share of rodents with a taste for the finer stuff. There was Bagel Rat, who frequented subway stations and the Bronx, and lest we forget the Great Chip War of 2017, during which rats battled it out over a French fry?The boujee squirrel video currently has just under 10,000 views—quite a lot less than viral veteran Pizza Rat, who boasts over ten million. Either way, it’s clear we have a new leader of vermin, one who exemplifies the modern-day class divides and generation gap of Western society.Long live Avocado Squirrel. An emblem of our times.
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