Paranoia ....

Did you ever see a rat wagging its tale. This wasn't any sized rat,  this was a big lad, big and furry, who looked at me straight in the eye, when walking the other night with my dog by the canal. Disturbed by the dog or the other way around, I'm not sure, as the dog returned to stay beside me. At first I thought it was another vagrant duck left over from the Newgrange hunt, but then it turned and turned again and on each change of direction it lifted its tail like a pencil slowly rising then dropping with a smack. Trying to intimidate  me I thought, the stand off ensued, as ratty got rattier, swimming toward me with its eyes fixed on us as if we were morsels of food. It was fat enough already I thought, as this one floated high with head and back above the water, in kill mode, like a drone on a mission to revenge a lost lover perhaps, after eating from one of my traps. I wonder was it the arrival of his ancestors to this land that marked the end to hides being used as material for boat building. Anyway, off rattie went, into the overhanging briars, wagging its tale. It's almost time to see which way my own tail wags this year! Up or down, the boat must go on a mission, before final judgement is made on its sea faring future.