That's neat stuff! He was a great one! Trick ropers amaze me! I have a hard enough time doing the butterfly with a hard team roping rope and have giving up doing any of it with my long ropes.
I haven't ever roped a rat, but besides the usual, I have roped a cat to doctor it's back leg with a kids rope, a snapping turtle, a posum and almost roped a deer in Iowa, which I hear is quite the mess.....lol.
There's a neat older video of guys ropin' a bear that is pretty good on youtube....