Rats (not the ones which are wild, I don't suppose) are actually rather nice beasts, very highly intelligent and inquisitive. They like being scratched behind their ears. I'm horribly allergic to them.
They caused a lot of trouble in labs for tobacco/nicotine researchers - rats refuse, point blank, to smoke.
(I said they were smart).
When researchers tried putting rats in boxes which had a tube introducing tobacco smoke to them, every single rat promptly poo-ed, picked up the poo, and shoved it into the tube to block it. That's even smarter, isn't it?
:smg: