Awesome story! I know a few people in the rural areas here in NW PA who seem to be junk collectors. I hate wild rats, too. But at one time I got my daughter a pet rat (she named him Willard) and eventuality we got a female and had a batch of pups. They were fun pets and actually clean if domesticated, but die painfully of tumors. I stopped allowing the kids to get more after ours all died.