I like ferrets, one of my cousins has one, and she really gets a kick out of him...
When my son went away to college, I had to tend to his pet rats....up until the time he went away, I could barely get used to those things, but he really enjoyed them...we even had to take them to the vet when they got the sniffles, and I thought the vet would laugh, but he was all business, and it was funny watching him put his stethoscope on the rat, as it was almost as big as the rat...sure enough, he prescribed some sort of meds for the rats...actually the vet educated me quite a bit about having pet rats...
Having to take care of them myself, I eventually got to see how sweet and loving they can be...the vet even mentioned, that my sons rats were so calm and sweet when handled, which showed that my son just did not keep them in their cage, but took them out, gave them a lot of attention, and well, just spoiled them...so having those rats was really quite an experience...
Well you know why they want to replace rats with lawyers in lab experiments? The grad. students don't get attached to the lawyers. And there are some things even a rat won't do.