OK, I'm cycling along the Trans Pennine Trail near Fiddler's Ferry, on Sat afternoon near Spike Island, by the river Mersey. You know, the river that runs from Manchester and empties into the sea around Liverpool?
And a rat BOUNCES across the trail. Like a kangaroo. Or a gerbil. Only it's rat sized - say 5-6 inches long not counting it's long rat like tail. Yep I have seen many rats - they RUN. This BOUNCED on it's hind legs. Boingy boingy boingy.
Settle a debate please - what was it?
A wallaby.
Wallaby?
Nope. Thanks anyway, but defo not a wallaby. I have seen wallabies in the zoo. It wasn't a wallaby.
Are you sure it wasnt a Clarks Wallaby?
(its what I had on when I went to see the Stone Roses at Spike back in the day!)
kangaroo rat
Gerbil?
Maybe it injurd it's front legs or something. Must of been desporate out in the day.
Hmmmm.... I was there too.
Rats are clever. Maybe the rats have learned to dance as a consequence, and perhaps somewhere on the banks of the Mersey there's a little tribute band of rats doing covers of My Mersey Paradise, oblivious to the point the lyrics are not really complimentary to their home town?
Nope, don't think this can be right. If the rat whad learned from the Stone Roses, it would have walked with an exaggerated swagger, and probably tried to barge me out of the way. It wouldn't have boinged along into some bushes. Nope.
Too big for a gerbil - this was rat sized. Are there such things as kangaroo rats in the uk?
Thanks Surfr - defo not a stoat. Imagine a VERY big gerbil, only rat sized, crouched low, front feet off the air, boinging along on it's back feet, with a definite boing boing boing effect. It was a very boingy thing.
No kangaroo rats outside Bristol Zoo I don't think but feral Red-necked wallabies have been around a while.
One of them there new black squirrels, that were on countryfile today?
I think you will find rats are related to kangaroo's.
I don't think so, no more than say we/monkey's are anyway.
I think it was a kangaroo rat - it had big beady eyes, not like a normal rat. EG:
http://www.arkive.org/giant-kangaroo-rat/dipodomys-ingens/video-06.html
do i win a prize?
Kangaroos are just big rats arn't they, funny you mention seeing it bounce, i've seen them bounce before too. Maybe it was high on E after going to a stone roses gig?
I reckon so! Well I can't think what else it would be. Never heard or seen of them before. But then it WAS Widnes. Anything's possible...
Kangaroos are just big rats arn't they
Don't ever say that to a kangaroo ............ they are very easily offended.
too right. 
the kangaroo's on the left
Shurely shome mishtake though. According to sir google, kangaroo rats are an endangered species - eg:
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/isdb/Taxonomy/tax-species-result.cfm?SpeciesNo=6678&tabname=distribution
, and only live in bits of America. So what would one be doing in Widnes? Well what would anything be doing in Widnes, but you know what I mean
Could have been a normal rat thats been drinking the water from the Mersey...
was it a chinchilla? Very common household pet in the UK so it's quite possible it's escaped and made it's way down to the Mersey (probably following the stench of that awful glue factory or whatever it is on the opposite side from spike island).
A potteroo? A kangeroo the size of a small rabbit/rat
If it had been a chinchilla I'd have chased it to give it a cuddle!
Its a Siberian hamster Mr Fawlty.
Kangaroos are just big rats arn't they
No, they're marsupials.
A rat on a pogo stick ?
Baby robin ?
I'm firming up on the kangaroo rat concept in the absence of any other viable options.
I think someone somewhere in officialdom should be concerned there are kangaroo rats boinging around Spike Island. It could turn out like the rabbits in Australia problem, and we all know how that ended up.
Or maybe they could be a tourist attraction to lure people to the bohemian wine bars and cafe society of Widnes?
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