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[GlyphGryph]

No idea where they came from though.

Turkeys can fly perfectly well, so they could have come from anywhere.

Rats are amazing. I've had a lot as pets, but my favourite was one that we raised from a newborn. She was super friendly and had no fear. At one point she figured out how to escape the cage, did it three times before we fixed the cage so she couldn't. Each time she escaped in the dead of night, and apparently wandered the house until she found an occupied bed and then climbed up to visit the sleeping human. Three different times, three different beds. Family members weren't impressed.

My parents had a rat that got out pretty consistently. But it never seemed comfortably away from the safety of it's cage, and it would only crawl up to the top (it was a three story cage, nearly as tall as me), and sit up there for a few hours every now and again. My mom would dutifully put him back in, but when she didn't he'd find his way back in on his own. This went on for about a month and a half.

I finally stayed up for a few hours one night watching it to figure out how it was getting out - one of the welds on the metal bars in a lower corner had come loose, and though visually it looked indistinguishable, the rat was able to push it to the side and scale the cage. It had a bit more difficulty getting back in - it seemed to remember the general area but not the specific bar. We were worried the dog was going to get it one of these days (the rats tormented and taunted the dog constantly) so we made sure to seal it up again.

[Kansa]

The animals I'm most impressed with though are pet rats. My brother's looking after a chubby one at the moment and he's fantastic. Scarily intelligent but really affectionate. He'll even ride around on your shoulder like a pirate's parrot.

I had a really bad experience with pet rats when my family got some, they were some of the most vicious pets that we ever had. When my sister tried to take one of them out of the cage it bit her finger and would not let go, they seemed to hate us with a  passion for some reason and we eventually had to take them back to the store where we got them from. It seems like from the comments here they were probably an exception though.

[Eotyrannus]

Yeah, most animals quite like having a cage, as long as they're not trapped in there. If they can get out regularly, it'll be comfortable for them.

[Owlbread]

The only really bad experience I've had with animals was with geese many years ago with my parents. We had two geese and several ducks, some chickens etc. The geese would rip the feathers out of the local pheasants' tails if they got too close, or just as a show of dominance. They'd buffet you with their wings too if you upset them which felt like getting hit with a bat or something. They were probably the most unpleasant animals I've ever been around, but my god you could make entire omelets out of just one of their eggs.

The shells were made of strong stuff too - when we decorated the eggs at Easter to roll down a hill they just wouldn't break, or at least until I launched them at some large stones that fell out of a drystane dyke.

[Descan]

The bay12lb IRC is empty. Like, literally empty. Just me and Cript are logged in.

[Taricus]

It isn't. Try logging out and re-connecting.

[DeKaFu]

I had a really bad experience with pet rats when my family got some, they were some of the most vicious pets that we ever had. When my sister tried to take one of them out of the cage it bit her finger and would not let go, they seemed to hate us with a  passion for some reason and we eventually had to take them back to the store where we got them from. It seems like from the comments here they were probably an exception though.

Just like with dogs or cats, it has a lot to do with how they've been socialized through their lives. The more they've interacted with people in a positive fashion from a young age, the friendlier and less skittish they are. I've had a couple pet store rats that had obviously never had any human interaction in their lives and therefore just saw us as huge predators. They'd hide whenever we got close and freak out if they felt cornered. I worked with them and they eventually got a bit calmer, but they were never as friendly as the ones we raised ourselves.

I volunteered at a cat shelter once and there were previously-feral cats there that behaved much the same for similar reasons.

[Kadzar]

The shells were made of strong stuff too - when we decorated the eggs at Easter to roll down a hill they just wouldn't break, or at least until I launched them at some large stones that fell out of a drystane dyke.

Is rolling decorated eggs down a hill a common thing in Scotland?

[Owlbread]

Yes. I've heard it's meant to symbolise the boulder being rolled away from Jesus' cave or something like that, I don't know if it has an older pagan significance like most things along those lines.

[Xantalos]

Yes. I've heard it's meant to symbolise the boulder being rolled away from Jesus' cave or something like that, I don't know if it has an older pagan significance like most things along those lines.

It's also fun to roll stuff down hills.

[Owlbread]

One year when I was very young we shot the eggs with an air rifle after decorating them as various dictators and mass murderers from Hitler to Saddam Hussein. I enjoyed that year.

[Octobomb]

Murder of mass murderers: The way forward

[LordSlowpoke]

If you massively murder mass murderers, does this mean you're effectively obliged to commit suicide at some point?

The question answers itself in a way, but some people would like to keep living after getting rid of them, you know. Gotta know the specifics to circumvent regulation.

[Biowraith]

If you murder a mass murderer you'll absorb all of their murder.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

If you kill monsters but you only get XP if you kill the ones your level or higher, eventually you'll level up and be the highest level creature around.

Which means you have nobody to kill but yourself if you want more XP.

And you know you do.