On a stretch of disused branch line in northern Powys Dr Paul Hudson walked his black Labrador, Duke, where steam locomotives of the Oswestry and Newtown Railway once belched smoke on their way to the Llanymynech Junction. Today Duke panted along the line as his pensive owner seemed intent on walking all the way to the next village of Llansantffraid.
The dog was four years old now and a ruthless ratter. Every end of winter, when the haystack was reduced to a few feet from the ground, the farm labourers with shotguns formed a circle around it. They threw a flaming brand onto the stack and when the rats fled the blaze they shot as many as they could. Four years ago, Duke, then a puppy, was outside the ring of men and copying the big dogs, went for a fleeing rat. The rodent’s incisors inflic
