Why the Rat has a Naked Tail

Am about to enter this in a contest online... nothing special :D

            In the days of old, when animals walked and talked among themselves in peace, and those troublesome humans had not come into the picture yet, Rat was held in high regard by the other animals.  Why, he was the cleverest of them all, by far, and had a beautiful tail.  He would spend hours each day stroking and tending to it.  It was a magnificent silver hue, and Rat felt as though it were the most marvelous tail in the world.  And trust me, whoever saw that tail would’ve agreed with him.

            All the animals loved Rat.  He was accepted as the most educated out of all of them, and always found time to show off his intelligence.  However, he wasn’t very reliable.  Whenever any of the other animals needed a hand or a foot�"or a tail�"Rat would always volunteer to help them, because he truly wanted to.  But at the last minute, something would come up; something would stop him from helping the person he made his promise to.

            Despite his flakiness and narcissism, the animals looked up to him.  After all, he was the cleverest of them all and could always be counted on to do something�"if the reward was great enough.  However, Rat had not always been at the top of the social totem pole.

            There used to be a certain animal, a certain creature who all others feared, respected, and looked up to.  Even more than they did for Rat.  That animal was Cougar; he was a courageous, daring, and awesome animal, and one who never backed down from a fight.  But he lost all of his fame with the arrival of one animal: Rat.

            Rat came from the distant land of High Sands, a desert-y area lacking law and order.  The little rodent had learned from an early age how to behave in such an environment, and knew how to survive the harsh climate and desolate landscape.  He had been taught how to fend for himself, how to find food in a sea of sand, and how to coax water from prickly cacti.  Rat could outfox the slyest desert fox and outrun the fastest roadrunner.

            Cougar had heard about Rat and wanted to see how smart the animal actually was.  He sent word to Rat by way of messenger bird, telling him to go to the dead eucalyptus tree at the foot of the mountains at sunset.  The proud Rat, very eager to meet this fan of his, raced to the carcass of a tree and was there just before sundown.  Presuming that Cougar was still on his way, Rat climbed up to the top of the dry branches and made himself comfortable.  In a few short minutes, he was lulled to sleep by the intoxicating spell of eucalyptus.

            As the sun set, Cougar crept out of the shadows from where he had been hiding all along.  With a selfish smile on his face, he silently scaled the tree next to the one Rat was asleep in.  Reaching his paw up as far as he could, Cougar snatched a small star down from the sky.  The star was hotter than he had expected, and his paw reflexively opened right after the white-hot fire singed his fur.  Yowling uncontrollably, Cougar pounced down from the tree as quickly as he could.  His tail was singed on his way down, and the tip of it has remained black to this day.

            Rat was in a peaceful sleep, dreaming about everyone’s admiration of him, when he smelled smoke.  His eyes shot open, and Rat leapt away from the black smoke and the flames licking his tail.  When he plopped on the ground, his tail felt much lighter.  Rat looked back, and he realized to his horror that all the fur on his tail had been burned off!