Spot the ball

The old adage has it that we're never more than six feet away from a rat. It's probably also true that you are never more than six feet from the nearest tennis ball chewed and abandoned by a dog; there is one in the photograph, lying on the salt marsh that lines this part of the Ythan estuary. It's also increasingly likely that you are never more than 6 feet from an abandoned plastic bag of dog ordure; but I have ranted on about that quite enough already!


In fact, recent research at the University of Huddersfield suggested that you are always within a more acceptable 164 feet of a rat, at least in urban situations.