91Èȱ¬

Bill Oddie is sitting underneath a willow tree, with a nice autumn breeze - wind in the willows. And of course one of the stars of wind in the willows was Ratty. Now, of course, it’s always said that Kenneth Grahame, who wrote ‘Wind in the Willows’, really meant Voley. That Ratty was a water vole. But Bill wonders about that. This is Ratty, not Voley - a brown rat, with nice little pink round ears, bright little eyes, twitchy little whiskers. Rats are very intelligent, very family orientated and very clean. The rat goes for a swim. You often do see rats by a river, not least because humans tend to chuck food there. Although of course it’s actually meant for the ducks. The rat grabs a piece of bread and swims off across the river with it, pursued by ducks. He’s made it, well done. Now, how often have you seen that? Rat with piece of bread outstripping a duck. He deserved to be in 'Wind in the Willows'.