Rat hunters are usually regarded as some kind of lunatic by the public at large, and, on reflection, the public at large may well be right. Verily, a rat hunter's lot is not a happy one First, he must condition himself to expect his wife to leave him, his friends to point the finger of scorn and his boss to wonder whether he has a future with the firm. So advises Brian Plummer, whose notoriety as a rat-catcher began at age ten. Tales of a Rat-Hunting Man, first published in Britain in 1978, is both a serious book on rats and their habits and an autobiographical account of Plummer's eccentric and entertaining life. But the heart of this book focuses on Plummer's obsession with ratting -- and he discusses the uses of ferrets and terriers, including their training and entering.