I smell a Rat! I have an unreasonable fear of Rats and realise that this year with the help of the Chinese Zodiac, there will be steady reminders of this creature, until the end of January 2009! A Rat year is apparently a time of renewal, activity and hard work! A year of opportunities for those who are prepared and resourceful! A good time to begin a new job, get married, and generally make a fresh start! Perhaps it is a time to change my attitude to rats and even embrace the possibility of a rodent in the house! And by that I mean the Pet kind rather than the uninvited midnight guest! I will tell you my horror mouse story in a future blog but for now here is a thought for 2008:

It may be the year to champion hamsters, guinea pigs and gerbils, as news reaches me that Pet shops are seeing their popularity decline in favour of Iguanas, snakes,skinks and newts!

In the U.K Pet shops are attributing the surge in demand for reptiles and amphibians to the famous naturalist David Attenborough, whose latest T.V sereies for the BBC is called 'Life in Cold Blood'. The man is a genius at presenting nature and wildlife programmes and attracting massive interest in the natural world from adults and children alike. Great news until your child comes home from school and says 'Mummy I wanna Iguana'! This headline in the Daily Mail got me thinking and in anitcipation of such a request, I am totally prepared to champion the rodent versus the reptile!