Or the moral character of the medium sized ones.
Consider the humble gerbil. Although not incredibly smart, it is curious, courageous, and gentle, rarely biting when handled. When a litter is born the father gerbils care for the babies as well, grooming them and collecting them when they wander. Unlike mice, gerbils rarely cannibalize their offspring. Their only failing is a tendency to brawl like drunken sailors on occasion. Would that all of us had half the moral character of the gerbil.
I currently mourn for the passing of one of my gerbils, stolen and critically wounded by my cat this weekend, but never uttering a squeak. Such was my respect for the gerbil that I took it to the vet for emergency euthansia. RIP, little gerbil.