Trench Rats Fiction

A long, long, LONG time ago, I became quite curious over a set of satin capes and caps that my mother was sewing. They were in various colors such as gold and black and red, and the caps featured Mickey Mouse-style ears. My mother told me they had something to do with the "Trench Rats." All I was able to find out back then in my childhood was that these were apparently soldiers who fought in trenches in World War I, but that was enough for me. I promptly created my own version of the "Trench Rats"--color-coded anthropomorphic rodent soldiers fighting in WWII, not WWI, against canine Nazi enemies. I, and later a friend of mine, adored pretending to be these characters as we ran around the yard and playground, and I started a few stories about them and their female counterparts, the "Trench Mice." I also came up with ideas for the Tunnel Rats and the Desert Rats, Trench Rat-like soldiers from Vietnam and the first Gulf War, respectively, though their stories were never written and not nearly as well developed as those of the Trench Rats.

As time went on, however, I became more and more embarrassed to own up to my creation of these characters, simply because the idea seemed so ludicrous and silly. Nobody would take seriously a story about rodent freedom fighters in wartime. Although I thought about the characters and their plight often, I no longer focused on the story, and was reluctant to talk about it to anyone. And when I finally summoned up the courage to post a few tentative details about it online, I first did so under a pseudonym, I felt so stupid.

That was before I discovered the genre of "furry writing" or "anthro." I was shocked that there were in fact LOTS of people out there who not only made art and wrote stories featuring anthropomorphic animals of every kind, but who took such things seriously. Suddenly, my idea didn't seem nearly so silly anymore. Emboldened, I eventually (yet discreetly) owned up to the fact that most of my other characters, including those in the D Is For Damien series, were animals as well. (Many of the earlier characters in the Manitou Island series--prior to the writing of the serial itself--started out as dogs, but have since evolved into humans.) I no longer really stress the species of many of my characters, not even in the "anthro"-centric Trench Rats series (there's very little mention anymore of such things as tails and whiskers), but the hints are there.

I haven't had the time lately to dedicate to writing on this series, so I'm forced to admit that it's currently on indefinite hiatus, plus the chapters that have been written need a serious rewrite. I post them publicly so that all four of my main storylines can be given a chance to be read by anyone who is curious enough to do so.

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Table Of Contents

The Trench Rats
Anthro/furry story featuring rats fighting dogs in WWII. On hiatus.

Trench Rats Short Stories
Shorter items set in the Trench Rats/Tunnel Rats continuity.