Rats!!! Rats!!! Rats!!! Liberals of the Animal World...

[AlienGirl]

Dogs are okay, cats are okay...but RATS are the coolest.

Rats are loyal and recognize their people, even after long absences. They're very social and smart and have been proven to laugh and to dream. Rats are great survivors and optimists. They have a sense of numbers and can be taught to count.

In experiments, rats will go without food if pressing a lever to get food results in another creature receiving an electric shock. (The other creature doesn't even have to be a rat.) They'll push buttons to help other rats, even rats they don't know, get from a suspended platform down to the floor. Mama rats will raise other babies even babies of other species, and will walk across electrified floors to retrieve lost babies--whether the babies are rats, kittens, or even chicks. (Rats have an innate concept of "baby-ness"!)

Rats are incredible survivors and quickly learn to avoid poisons and spring traps.

Rats learn their names, to come when called, and a bunch of different words. Rats can be taught to find landmines and run computer network wires through walls. They're clean and will use a litterbox--they like to keep their environment nice.

Smart, social, altruistic, friendly, and envivronmentally conscious--rats are awesome!

Tucker

[commander bunnypants]

1. Rats are cool but cats rule

What is up with the animal wars today. I like them all


DDQM

[AlienGirl]

2. I like all animals too...

Even the non-cuddly kind, like scorpion and millipedes.

But rats have a special place in my heart; always have, always will.

Tucker

[Bronco69]

3. "Rats are incredible survivors and quickly learn

to avoid poisons and spring traps." Evidently the one that decided to take up residence under my deck didn't get that memo. :-)

[Dookus]

4. I love rats, too....

have had a number of them as pets in the past. They're affectionate, intelligent, friendly, clean and cute as hell. I always tell people looking to buy hamsters or mice for their kids to forget it and go for a rat. They have a bad rep, but they're far and away the best of the rodent pets.

[AlienGirl]

5. Rats are good pets for kids...

Unlike hamsters, who can be very grumpy about being pestered, rats want to come out of the cage and play as often as possible! They quickly learn games like tag and peek-a-boo and love to wrestle with your hand.

Huntington has developed a fascination with the dice my gaming group uses. He likes to roll them around and try to chew on them!

Tucker

[populistmom]

6. I'm a Rat

Well, at least I was born in the year of the Rat.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Rats rock!

Always like 'em.

Never had rats of my own, but I like them. And mice. And I loved my gerbils.

I didn't realize that rats would raise and/or attempt to save other babies, or refuse to get food if it means another rat getting shocked. Not many animals that would be that altruistic. Even a lot of humans aren't that "humane".