Then the mortician opened the heart, and the arteries were clogged with fatty deposits. Later, I went upstairs for lunch and in the hospital cafeteria they were serving ribs. I had just handled that I just couldn't eat them. That set me on the path to vegetarianism. I had a rat.
Rats are one of the most unreasonably denigrated species.
When I was in college I actually did experiment on rats. The experiments were not just old-fashioned, but downright nasty B.F. Skinner behavioral experiments. Anyway, I ended up bringing a rat home with me. But when I let him run around the apartment, I realized that these animals were a lot like dogs or any other social animal. He eventually developed a breast tumor and died a very miserable death.