My best friend might not be exactly who you would think it would be. My friend is not a person and not a dog. My best friend is a rat. Right now, you might be thinking "A Rat"! Because rats have been put in scary movies, they have gotten a bad name. Most people think that rats are mean, scary, and dumb. All of these are untrue. Rats are very intelligent very sweet and hardly ever bite. Many people have also feared them because wild rats can be mean and destructive. Wild Rats carry a disease called the bubonic plague or Black Death. This disease wiped out millions of people during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The disease was actually spread by fleas that jumped from the rat to a person and passed on infectious bacteria.

Although many rats have caused diseases and some are mean it does not make all rats mean. There are bad people in the world, but does that make all people bad? No! Some Rats are friendly. Sometimes psychologists and scientist use Rats for experiments. They have rats run through mazes and go through obstacle courses. They take notes on the rat's intelligence. Psychologist began selecting individual rats that were friendlier and mating them with other friendly rats. Eventually a gentler breed of rats developed. This process is called selective breeding. These rats are now pets around the world. They are called fancy rats.

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