Why are they called Smurt, Snitch and Dervel?

Because them’s their names! As all three rats are based on my real pets, their names are real too (albeit modified). Snitch’s real name was ‘Stitch’, Smurt was called ‘Smurf’ and Dervel was called ‘Derfel’ (the pronunciation is the same). In some of the early archives you can still see them use their original names.

To find out more about the original rats, visit the ‘Characters‘ page.

Why did you modify the names?

In the case of Derfel, I altered the spelling because no-one could say it right, usually calling him ‘Durr-fell’. With Smurf and Stitch it was down to an error made by our vet who, for some reason, could not get their head around the names.

What is Dervel exactly?

He’s a rat – just with floppy ears.

No, really – he looks like a cross between Snoopy and Grommit…

Please leave.

What varieties are the Rodent Rebels?

In the cartoons/ stories:

Snitch is a black self. She appears to be dark grey because if I coloured her pure black, her features would not show up.

Smurt is a mink hooded.

Dervel is a champagne top-earred self.

In real life:

Stitch was a mismarked black berkshire.

Smurt was a mismarked mink hooded.

Derfel was a top-earred champagne self.

How can Dervel possibly be top-earred?

It’s a technicality.  If you look at ‘Papa Dervel‘, you can see that he had relatively small ears when he was an eeper.  Dervel has given various reasons as to why his ears are floppy, but the reality is we just don’t know the truth – and maybe we never will!

Who was Bronto?

Bronto (real name Bronte) was Smurf’s real life sister and an original character in the short stories which formed the basis of this cartoon strip. Bronto was grey, large and a bit of a thug – the ‘muscles’ of the gang. In reality she was refined and a little bit lazy. She was dropped from the book as her character felt one-dimensional and unneccessary. She never appeared in the cartoon strip, although she does feature in two early Rodent-Rebels related pieces of artwork.

Who’s the dude in the cartoon?

The ‘dude’ is Simon, my fiance, thank-you very much.

Have Smurt, Snitch and Dervel left La-La Land yet?

Technically speaking no – in fact, as I write (28th January 2010) they are still technically visiting Calvin and Hobbes. Whoops! The Rodent Rebels wil be continuing with their adventures through La-La Land, but this should be viewed as a seperate adventure from their every-day stories. Don’t worry, they live!

Is there anwhere I can see a full list of all the archived strips?

Go to the ‘Contents‘ page, where you will find all archived strips linked to by order of release date.

Are the Rodent Rebels still alive?

On page and in heart – yes. In real life, sadly not.

Smurf died of Mycoplasmosa (a form of lung-disease common in rats) in May 2004. She was only 1 year and 5 months old.

Stitch and Derfel both died on the same day in July 2005 – Derfel also had Mycoplasmosa, and Stitch had a large tumour. They were 1 year and 7 months and 2 years and 4 months old respectively.

They are sadly missed.