[Strontium Dog]

I'm an allexperts SF books volunteer and have received a question:-

Short Story
"Question: I once read a short story narrated by a cat. He was on the first mission out of the solar system and it turns out that there is some type of radiation from the sun that causes stupidity. As they get further and further out,the animals get smarter, starting with the smallest. The lab animals become telepathic and the cat is working with the mice for the lab animals to escape. Sound familiar?"

Trouble is that I remember the story well, but not the title or the author. Simple googling only reveals a similiar book or story by Poul Anderson called "Brain Wave" except that in the latter it's the entire Earth which gets free of the radiation.

By the way, the story also involves the human crew becoming even more intelligent than the animals, and the animals are given the option to land on other planets.

Any help would be most appreciated. I still have an SF encyclopaedia to fall back on, but it's no guarantee to find the title.

[B5B7]

I also remember the story, but can't think of the title or author. Another story with intelligent rats is A. Bertram Chandler's 'Giant Killer (http://baens-universe.com/articles/Giant_Killer).
I think the story is fairly old - 1950s (or 1960s), and is the type written by such as William Tenn or Theodore Sturgeon.

[tigger16]

That sounds like "Brain Wave" by Poul Anderson :p