I had two, in high school. My sister had a rat, one of the "siamese" breeds she paid a lot of money for. Seemed fun, so I got two females from the pet store. Mine were fun until the first night, when they decided to have Wrestlemania at 3am on a school night. crashsqueakcrashsqueal*.

They both died within two months of cancer. Pet store rats are so inbred (raised as snake food) they have very short life expectancies. It's a shame, as they're very intelligent. But they're pests and disease carriers and wreck farms and homes, in the wild. But pet rats can be a lot of fun.

I discovered my passion...er...addiction later, with fish tanks, and reef fish.