Why you dirty rat…
Rats are seldom heroes in Children’s literature—with the exception of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Rats are usually portrayed as thieving pests. Take in case The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, Samuel and his wife Anna Maria are squatters and thieves. In the Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rat is a greedy drunkard, and in the Pied Piper of Hamlin rats are so numerous that they are a plague. Other writers have gone different routes. E.B. White’s Templeton (Charlotte’s Web) is greedy and self-interested, but eventually comes around to being useful contributor, even if only for self-preservation. In A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett added a dash of romance to Sara Crewe’s impoverished circumstances by giving her a tame “bastille rat” for a pet. Alison Uttley made her rat a bit of everything and seems to have had with introducing him little by little in her books. He starts off as a burglar, and ends up a tamed “…respectable working animal…”
The character of Rat makes his first appearance in The Story of Fuzzypeg the Hedgehog, where he is described friendly but even approaching Rat’s house makes Milkman Hedgehog nervous. Rat does give Fuzzypeg a poached egg for his birthday. We later find out he is a career burglar in Squirrel Goes Skating. After he breaks into Little Grey Rabbit’s house, empties out their larder, drinks a whole bottle of primrose wine and is brazen enough to fall asleep in Squirrel’s bed. The gang is scared, but Rabbit is insistent that he must be punished, and so Squirrel ties a magic knot in his tail and they drive him from the house.
Rat is not a respectable working critter like Milkman Hedgehog or a gentleman like Water Rat; he’s a burglar and so he has an uneasy relationship with the woodland community. Critters generally check to see if they’ve left valuables laying about when he comes around.
In Little Grey Rabbit’s Party, R.S.V.P stands for Rat Shan’t Visit Party. However, Rabbit is sympathetic and leaves an herb pie out for Rat when she sees him lurking. We learn that the knot in Rat’s tale has caused lean times for Rat because the knot makes too much of a racket for him to burgle or poach anymore. Alison Uttley could’ve left it at that, and I do wonder what sort of reaction she received regarding the character of Rat, because he gets his own story of redemption and is portrayed somewhat sympathetically. There is an element of restorative justice in the way Alison Uttley reintroduces him into the community. It’s also noteworthy that Rabbit, Moldy Warp and Milkman Hedgehog are the only animals that demonstrate any kind of charity toward Rat in spite of his history.
The Knot Squirrel Tied introduces Rat’s wife and baby, who are also suffering from want since Rat can no longer provide for his family by thieving or poaching. Their home looks rather sparse, but not completely dilapidated like the Weasel or Fox’s homes described in other stories. Mrs. Rat expects him to thieve and calms their child with a rhyme that promises his papa will “bring thee an egg / he’ll either steal or borrow or beg”. Instead, 
Rat leaves his hungry family to visit his watering hole: the Cock & Bull Inn where he complains with other Rats over drink. Alison Uttley drives home the theme that all Rats are thieves, when another rat laughs at Rat’s near fatal attempted burglary, he grouses to himself, “no sympathy among thieves.” It’s just in a rat’s nature to theive. Also, Alison Uttley casually expands on his past criminality, by remarking, “he carried a pair of shears and a scythe instead of his club and gun.” Suggesting that he did armed burglary as well as poaching.
All of his burglary attempts seem to be about fulfilling his own immediate appetite and not about bringing something home for his family. At his worst, Rat is also not taking care of his family.
After several failed attempts at burglary, Rat takes Wise Owl’s advise to turn over a new leaf. By resisting the temptation to steal when the opportunity arises, doing odd jobs for the other animals to earn money and developing his talent at carving is that magic that gradually undoes the knot in his tail. No longer weighed down by the knot, he steps lightly and is even described as clean and neat; and he discovers joy and pride in working. In Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas he is still lurking and sidling up to people, but this time it’s because he found and returns the sled Hare lost in the woods and with some nice carved gifts for Rabbit, Hare, and Squirrel. The animals, led by Fuzzypeg, cheer for Rat.
Clothing…
Clothing, sometimes, is important for the characters in Alison Uttley’s stories. For example Hare and Squirrel have their outfits for certain days of the week. Rat wears a green and brown plaid, belted coat with an orange scarf. His choice of headwear is a fedora, which also happens to be the choice headwear of gangsters in popular culture. 
Once he begins working and is respectable, it is revealed that he has a blue and white striped shirt and blue tie. The plaid coat looks country leisure, but the shirt and tie looks London clerk. Of course, he may’ve stolen them off various laundry lines to get the mismatch look.
Language…
Rat’s dialogue is not obviously working class like Milkman Hedgehog, but he usually calls Grey Rabbit “Miss” with either deference or maybe politeness. Alison Uttley does sprinkle a little dialect into the way the Rats speak. Rat describes himself as thin as a “skellington”, and his Missus thinks Squirrel is “impident” for tying the knot. Rat also has an obsequious way of begging a favor; the text describes it as humble. “Sir Hedgehog, a word with you, sir. A word in your ear, Sir”. He’s a big flatterer too, calling Milkman Hedgehog wise–which Hedgehog quickly raises an eyebrow at.
Abridgment…
I noticed a lot of Rat’s worse qualities have been abridged from the text. Drinking with the lads at the Inn, how he used to carry a gun and a club for hunting and poaching. Though the gun does show up in the final illustration hanging over Rat’s fireplace. They also rub out a lot of the details like all rats being thieves, his one bit of dialect and the obsequious way he begs a favor from Hedgehog.
Final thoughts…
Rat’s appearances become sparser after The Knit Squirrel Tied; Alison Uttley didn’t try to make the Rat family as part of the community the same way Milkman Hedgehog’s family appears, throughout the stories. He stops by in Little Grey Rabbit’s Birthday to drop off a gift but just “stands in the doorway”, so maybe Rat Shan’t Visit Party still stands and he’s still on the fringes of respectable society, hopefully not recidivating.
Little Grey Rabbit Scholar 