Me and my girlfriend have a pet rat named Sam
He gets food and cuddles whenever we're home in the apartment, so he's a bit spoiled. He expects to get taken out for breakfast every morning and hangs on the cage bars when we wake up.
I've been around rats for almost 20 years and they are fantastic pets, much smarter than other small rodents like mice, gerbils or hamsters. It's perfect if you can't have anything bigger and/or if you don't have the time to walk a dog or a similar problem. We live in a student apartment and they're pretty strict about pets, but rats are easy to keep under the radar.