Rat Runs Canine Gantlet Through NYC Dog Park: Watch Viral Video

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Viral video from a New York City dog park gives new meaning to the term rat race.

Canine chaos was captured on video posted to Twitter on Tuesday that shows a rat making a desperate run across the East Village's Tompkins Square Dog Run, pursued by pooches.

Frantic owners tried their best to form a circle around the rat to keep the canines from capturing the unhealthful midday snack, but a rescued dog named Zoey evaded her owner's grasp, video shows.

Zoey's owner, Jonah Ram, told Patch he'd been discussing an outbreak of lepto — a disease carried by rat urine — when he turned to see his prey-oriented pooch making chase.

"Ironically, during the conversation, the now infamous rat sauntered out into the middle of the dog run," Ram said. "I immediately knew Zoey would catch it."

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Video shows an exuberant Zoey tossing the stunned rodent in the air as Ram races toward the rat.

"I deployed the stern point," said Ram. "While also asking her to please drop the presumably sick rat."

Ram was commended by commenters for his use of pointing to keep his dog from jumping back in for more, but they raised concerns about Zoey's health.

This prompted a friend of Ram's to post a photo of him posing with Zoey and a sign saying, "Zoey didn't get sick."

A cherry on top for Ram might be the dozens of comments mentioning his good looks.

"Hang on now, Zoey's dad is a cutie!" one person commented on Twitter to the tune of 185 likes.

This news — of Zoey's good health — was a relief to Ram, who told Patch she was a shelter puppy who was often sick and, from the beginning, loved to hunt.

"Zoey has an EXTREME prey drive," Ram said. "When I rescued her as a puppy at the shelter she was hunting ants, and as you can see has upgraded to rats and pigeons."

Ram said that he told his friends and family about the experience but never thought he'd be able to relive the moment through a viral video.

"In such a tragic week of news, I am certainly happy to participate in such a light and fun story," Ram said. "The comments are also amazing, team rat vs. team keep your dog healthy. Only in NYC."

The original video, which was expertly set to the melodic jazzy tune of "They Say It's Spring," has garnered nearly 6 million views and has been liked on Twitter more than 280,000 times.

As with all viral videos, the comments are a story in their own right.

"This is NY only the strongest survive," one person commented on an Instagram version of the video. Another person wrote, "This is the most NY s*** I've ever seen in my life."

"The man was putting in work to save Ratatouille. Bless his soul," a Twitter user wrote about Ram. The comment received 29,000 likes.

Multiple people also praised a different flip-flop-wearing man for his bravery to keep the dogs away from the rat, despite having his toes exposed.

Another Twitter user queried, "What are all these dogs doing in the rat park?"