I agree with you, they are pretty much Fluffy Tailed Rats with good PR. However, they haven't caused millions of deaths by carrying the plague all over the Europe (Yet). Probably due to the fact that they prefer to live in forest area away from people. I personally like them and will do what I can to keep them on the outside of my home and still feed them.

Eric

The tree variety may not cause plague, but the ground variety out here sure does. We get outbreaks of plague in the Ground Squirrell populations out here that close down whole areas of the landscape to human interaction. That's OK...their tails tie good flies too, just not as fluffy as the tree rat tails.

MAO