A woman has claimed her pet rat saved her life after it stopped her house going up in flames.
Caroline Davis’ says her rodent, Ratty, sprang into action when she dropped a lit cigarette as she slept.
The cigarette landed on her dressing gown and was burning a hole while the mother-of-two dozed, she claims.
Caroline says her rat must have spotted the danger and picked up the cigarette, before moving it to a non-flammable surface.
Caroline, 61, says the pet then climbed onto her and woke her up.
The retiree firmly believes Ratty intervened as she found the lit cigarette on her tiled conservatory floor, yards from where she fell asleep.
Caroline, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, said: “That night, if it hadn’t been for Ratty, we could have lost our home, or maybe even our lives.
“She saved us, and I like to think that’s her way of paying me back for rescuing her in the first place.”
Caroline says Ratty was brought into her home eighteen months ago by Paddy, one of her pet cats.
She put her in a small cage and gave her food and water, although she didn’t expect her to survive the night.
But she clung on and, as the days went by, Caroline and her husband Malcolm, 64, continued to take care of her.
After a few weeks, Ratty had become used to being fed every day and to life in a cage, so she decided to keep her.
Caroline said: “To be honest with you, when my cat brought her in I didn’t think she would survive the night.
“I only fed and watered her to give her a comfortable end, but to my surprise she just kept getting stronger and stronger.
“It got to the point where she’d been with me for so long, she probably wouldn’t survive back out in the wild.
“So I kept her, and earlier this month she repaid me in spades.”
Caroline has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and says the drugs and medication means she now suffers from a mild form of narcolepsy.
When she nodded off, the cigarette set her gown alight, prompting Ratty to run over and grab hold of it with her mouth.
Caroline claims the rodent then had the intelligence to move the cigarette on to the nearby conservatory tiles, before going back to wake her.
Meanwhile Malcolm, a retired orthopaedic nurse, was fast asleep upstairs.
She said: “I have been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and the treatment and medication makes me fall asleep at the drop of a hat.
“This particular night I was on the sofa having a cigarette when I nodded off and the ember fell on my dressing gown.
“I was completely out of it, but Ratty must have noticed the smouldering fumes, and she came and picked up the cigarette and moved it to a safe place.
“She then ran up my leg and was clawing at me to wake me up just as the flames reached my skin.
“That did the trick, and I was able to put my gown out quickly after.
“I have some mild burns on my thigh and a huge hole in my jeans and gown - but if it wasn’t for her, the whole house could have gone up.
“That’s when it struck me, that little wild rat may well have repaid me for rescuing her in the first place. She is a true hero!”
