The Year Of The Ratatouille

Welcome to 2008, the Chinese Year of the Rat. This is not good news if you are a rat, especially if you live in Moscow. We bring you news of the first pet craze of the New Year..

According to Chinese astrologers, those born in the Year of the Rat are charming and generous people with a good imagination who can also be quick-tempered and over-critical. Or, alternately: clever, self-confident and optimistic. It all depends on who you read. Rat people also make good writers, critics and publicists - apparently.

Russians take this information somewhat seriously. With its long Chinese border, the Russian population has a history of closely following Chinese astrology. (Russian Astology Research Centre).

Now, ahead of the Chinese New Year, Muscovites have been buying up Moscow's stock of champagne rats, rat cages and ratty furniture to give to each other as New Year presents. The city's pet shops are now reported to have run out of rats to sell.

Of course, it doesn't take a Cino-Russian astrologer to predict that, rather like the unfortunate Ratatouille craze that hit our pet shops back in October, after leaping off pet shop shelves, many of these Russian rats will soon find themselves bouncing out the front door.

The Year of the Rat: 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972, 1960.. Famous Rats:

Marlon Brando,
Burt Reynolds,
Ursula Andress,
Englebert Humperdinck.