>You like those cute Grey Squirrels? Schedule C in the BC Wildlife Act. Can be captured or killed anywhere, at anytime as they are considered invasive and harmful to the ecosystem. Go figure, I might know a think or two about my local ecosystem!

Oh, hey, I'm genuinely glad to hear that you're doing something productive. And if rats come to you bird feeder, fair game. It's just that what you said about dogs being "useful in general" and rats being "only useful in labs" sounded really dumb. But, as always, context is good. So let me retract what I said about ecosystems. You have my full support in that regard. I'm not one to try and "win" when arguing with someone -- mutual understanding is my jam.

As to rats, I don't particularly like them. I never had one as a pet and I don't intend to. That said, I've got nothing against them either. My point is, rats are not outdoor pets. No sane person will let their pet rat go outside and just roam around the neighborhood -- with cats around, a pet rat would get killed four times over before it reached your birdhouse. It'll get lost. It'll run away. If someone lets their pet rat out of the house, they're the one responsible for the rat's inevitable death. So yeah, your visions of slaughtering "support rats" (if such a thing even exists -- I'll take your word for it) sound like weird fantasies that you air on the internet for some reason.

And lastly, when it comes to your pronoun jokes, I'm very typical in that regard. Straight cis male, very hard to offend, whether intentionally or unintentionally. And I'm not even that young, although probably younger than you. I just prefer the way young people think to how old people think. And I believe that their openness to vulnerability and willingess to help themselves emotionally is much healthier than the approach you're presenting here. If someone needs a "support rat", hell, I'm all for them having a support rat. Nothing wrong with that. And you can keep on giggling -- expect giggling in return.