Sunday, October 07, 2007

Rats!


I will proceed no futher with the Browning poem than the title.
Anyway, yesterday we were walking the dog in a stubble field. As we walked up the hill about 20 t0 30 rats ran out of the field in front or us, crossed our path, and ran towards a ditch by the side of the field.
It was so wierd. I have never seen so many at once.
It could be that they were disturbed by the ploughing going on in the adjacent field or maybe there are more of them due to the recent addition to Saffron Walden of a skatepark nearby and all the discarded food that goes with that. Or maybe we are like the anithesis of the pied piper of Hamelin and rats run away from us. Needless to say, Gromit proved again how far evolved he is from the wolf by totally ignoring them.
While I am on the subject I would just like to say that it always pleases me that the Black Rat's Latin name is Ratus Ratus. It's like Lineus got to naming it on a Friday evening when he wanted to go to the pub and just said Oh that'll do!

7 comments:

oreneta said...

Did gromit even notice them, or just wisely pretend he didn't see them???

Boo and Trev said...

I suspect he didn't notice them. Maybe he thought it was too much effort to run after them. He'll only chase after cats is they have already started running away!

Anonymous said...

eugh that story is scary, im never going in the fields again!!!

Adrian Jones said...

Saff's never chased a rat to my knowledge but I'm sure she wouldn't pass up the opportunity if it arose. Squirrels are her real favourite (mortality rate 1 on mine and Carl's watch) but she's not really interested in bunnies and tends to leave them be. Sheep are another favourite which is more of a problem in Wales than in Wiltshire :)

Don't blame Gromit though, he's clearly more intelligent than previously thought - after all, what's to gain by chasing a bunch of smelly rats?!

Anonymous said...

Apparently rats do this gathering together and then moving to a new area.My Mum once told me of the day in her youth when she saw hundreds of rats going down Woodhouse Lane in Leeds. So many that she could not see any of the road for the length of the lane.I know that was in the middle ages! but just think one is never further that 15 feet from a rat and they are on the increase.So you probably saw the advance guard and the rest were just behind you.Will you be walking that way again soon?

Helen said...

Yuck!! I need say no more!

oreneta said...

Weirdly, I saw two rats the other day, both dead. One in an nearby town and one of the beach. Yuck.

Never more than 15 feet from a rat...gruesome.