Consider Pizza Rat.

“New York City rat taking pizza home on the subway (Pizza Rat),” the viral YouTube clip, follows the exploits of one resolute rat as it tumbles down subway steps while dragging along an entire slice of pizza.

The video’s appeal is as complicated as it is universal. Few New Yorkers — few humans — love rats. But this is one resourceful rodent, and who isn’t just a little beguiled by his determination?

Like Pizza Rat, the animals in these photographs are immediately recognizable as fellow New Yorkers — co-conspirators doing those things we’d perhaps all like to do but really shouldn’t. Who isn’t inspired to gluttony by seeing an English house sparrow surrounded by a gold mine’s worth of greasy fries? We know they’re not good for the bird, any more than they’d be good for us, but what great good fortune!