I worked at a pet store in college. This mother came in with her daughter and they wanted to get a Pet. They weren’t sure what but definitely not a rat, and definitely not a male anything.
I worked with them for about three hours, and at the end sent them home with a male rat. Both delighted as can be.
He was a very social and playful one that I had been planning on taking home.
Yes, if you can stand the smell, and keep them active and socially-engaged, rats make excellent pets. They’re more predator than prey, with all that implies.
I find their body language pretty hard to read and their interaction to be much closer to prey (a rabbit) than predator (a dog or cat), but perhaps that is a lack of experience on my part.
I once thought squirrels were cute. Then I became a condo association president.
I removed squirrel carcasses from all rooftop A/C units, along with the harvested nutshells that they had left behind. I patched the holes they opened into the walls and crevices of the condo apartments.
Finally I helped remove the 40-year-old pecan tree adjacent to one building's slab and which had hosted these pests for decades. The tree was lifting the slab and likely would have broken the foundation.
I have resolved that buildings should never coexist with either large trees (nut-bearing or otherwise) or with rodents.
Two years ago some jackass planted two pecan trees in the condo front yard. This year the pecans are falling and the squirrels have already moved back. The homeowners' association is clueless. The cycle continues.
