LAST summer my husband announced that a mouse had set up home in our compost bin. "Oh, how sweeeet," we all piped up, "Can we see?"

A few minutes later, we changed tune, after a neighbour gave my husband a couple of tips on wildlife identification. "It's a rat," he said, in a tone of voice tinged with terror.

"Oh no, what are we going to do?" I remember asking, as our neighbour (who is used to dealing with such matters) outlined a plan of action. Needless to say, it didn't include making a snug home for the creature in a cosy, hay-filled orange box.

To most people, a rat is a thing of horror. A dirty - there's even the expression, "You dirty rat" - creature that carries around all manner of diseases, some potentially fatal.

So the news that rat numbers are at record levels and are a serious threat to public health will no doubt cause alarm. The latest rodent population figures show a rise of 39 per cent in the UK's brown rat population.

More than 70 million brown rats are now estimated to be scurrying around Britain, more than one for every human.

People living in London are now said to never be more than 14 metres (46ft) from a rat. I'm not sure what the figures are for Yorkshire, but my guess is it's about half that.

I've arrived at this conclusion not only because of our compost bin experience, but because in the past year I've spotted at least six rats - all as long as a computer screen - in places ranging from the back of our local supermarket to the road outside my daughters' school.

The increased use of compost bins and bird feeders, plus the growing amount of litter and poor maintenance of sewage pipes, have been highlighted as some of the likely reasons for the explosion.

So what can be done? We could blitz them with poison, but this has so far proved ineffective. Rats aren't stupid. They soon latch on to the fact that drinks in bottles with skulls and crossbones on the label aren't as thirst-quenching as those showing pictures of oranges and blackcurrants.

They soon suss out traps too. So, in the absence of a modern-day Pied Piper, we need to find another solution. I think I've found it. Look to the positive. Rats are great. Hasn't anyone seen the film Flushed Away? I once visited a fancy rat show, and met some real characters among the collection of rodents.

Rats make wonderful pets. My daughter's friends, twin girls, have one each. They have names - Nibbles and Bitten Apple - and, I have to admit, they are adorable. They like nothing better than to scurry up your outstretched arm and nestle under your hair, their busy whiskers twitching.

They have been in the dog house for a few misdemeanours - chewing through the odd computer cable or two - but they are clever, adaptable and affectionate.

Rats have a bad press. In days gone by they were blamed for the spread of the bubonic plague, but it can also be carried by cute little desert-dwelling gophers and other cuddly-looking critters.

Let 2007 be Adopt-a-Rat year. If we all give bed and board to a couple of rats, they wouldn't need to be out on the streets.

But make sure they're the same sex - a rat's gestation period is around three weeks, and they can have more than 20 babies.