[Paul Leyhausen] once had a wild cat named Tilly, whose diet included live rats. One of them managed to escape being caught by hiding under the cat's sleeping box. From there it made forays into the cage, nipping at Tilly's heels in a most unsettling manner. (Rats aren't supposed to be aggressors.) Finally, Tilly decided it was a "pet" rat and not a "food" rat, and gave it the run of the cage. She went about her daily business of killing food rats without ever mistaking her pet rat for one of them. In fact, the two of them came in time to eat fresh-killed rats together.Tilly never struck at or bit her pet rat, even when it snatched food away from her, and eventually it moved from under her sleeping box into her sleeping box. Tilly slept holding it to her breast with her fore paws. This idyllic comradeship lasted four months, at the end of which Leyhausen took the rat away from her. Three months later, he returned it to her cage. Tilly showed no sign of recognition, and started after it. It had turned into a "food" rat. The rat, too big now to hide under the cat's sleeping box, jumped into its one-time refuge. But the appeal to auld lang syne was fruitless: Tilly leaped into the box and killed and ate her former friend.
-- Muriel Beadle, The Cat.
Note to the oryx: Stay close by. Forever.
Some people just don't know the right buttons to push.