Some people (like me) find rats and mice to be cute.

And FYI, rats did NOT cause the Black Death. That was the theory at the time, but it hasn't held up to scrutiny. We are now fairly certain it was human lice. Both the outbreak patterns and genetic evidence makes this clear.

Bubonit plaque is still spread by mice and it's still a pfovkt.

I'm not sure what a pfovkt is. Bubonic plague CAN be spread by (fleas on) mice or rats. But historically it was not, at least not in Europe. The most recent outbreaks in Europe in the 19th century were carried by lice. We know this for certain. Looking back at historical outbreaks in the Middle Ages and early modern period, the information about how the plague spread is consistent with lice, not rats as the vector. For example, people sharing the same bed and sheets get sick, but not people in adjoining houses sharing the same walls and garden. The outbreak of the great plague in London is not near the quarantine docks as one would expect, but rather a poor area on the completely other side which was known to be a site of prostitution. It then spread largely along class lines through communities with poor hygiene, largely skipping affluent areas even when there was nothing that would have prevented rats from moving through.

Col. Hans Landa : Yet I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels that you do with rats, do you?

Perrier LaPadite : No.

Col. Hans Landa : But they're both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they even rather look alike, don't they?

Perrier LaPadite : It's an interesting thought, Herr Colonel.

Col. Hans Landa : Ha! However interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to walk in here right now, as I'm talking, would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk?

Perrier LaPadite : Probably not.

Col. Hans Landa : I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them; all you know is you find them repulsive.

Presumably pet squirrels are just as bad as pet rats about defecating everywhere and gnawing on everything.

I admire rodent tenaciousness, but we are not friends.

Rats are apparently also smarter.

A friend of mine kept them as pets. I was there once and watched one eat a piece of spaghetti. It held the noodle with both paws, sitting on its hind legs, and took bites while feeding it into its mouth "hand over hand". I have never really forgotten that. There was something so deliberate and skilled about this. No dumb beast, this, face down in a pile of food. This was an intelligent, fastidious creature enjoying a pasta dinner.

That’s actually a behavioral task used in neuroscience experiments as well. Pasta eating is a surprisingly complex skill involving dexterous manipulation and complexity sensory and motor signaling throughout the brain.

We used to keep rats, and they are pretty delightful really. I discovered later that they are such sociable creatures, they really need friends of their own kind. Ours got lots of attention, could pretty much run free for most of the day, but they do get lonely.

Give them a dish of water and you might see them wash their hands after eating too! They’re very human sometimes.

Thanks for that image

Hamsters, on the other hand...

https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/0...

A super-cute rat eating spaghetti more or less this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp8VapqaCkE

Rats are pretty clever, they can respond to their names and follow simple verbal instructions.

Back when I was a student I used to keep a couple, and several local friends also had one or two. They make good pets - larger and less fragile than mice, smarter and more interactive than gerbils, and not at all prone to biting you randomly.

I've seen squirrels bait cats and other animals in a playful fashion, facing downwards on a tree doing the undulating tail thing. Maybe rats are smarter, but squirrels are pretty playful and charismatic.

I used to keep a rat, and considered her about as smart and enterprising as my cats.

I regularly feed squirrels coming to my window. Some of them are curious and brave enough to enter the room through the window, and they definitely learned what actions of mine lead to food appearing at the windowsill.

Animals are fun.

I often refer to squirrels as cute, fluffy-tailed arboreal rats...

The fluffy tail makes a surprisingly big difference in the cuteness, although I'm not sure I can explain why.

Better PR too

TreeRats

and pigeons?

pigeons are rats that can fly