If you love animals and stories with happy endings, then the tale of Mrs. T, a tortoise from Pembroke, will touch your heart.

The 90-year-old has got a new lease of life thanks to the inventiveness of her owner after Mrs. T sustained horrific injuries when her legs were partially eaten by a rat as she hibernated.

Owners Dale Sinclair-Jones and Linzi James, of Whitehall Avenue, recently appealed for financial help for a series of operations after the rat had completely eaten the tortoise's two front legs to the elbow joint, which had to be amputated.

Their appeal was featured on Facebook and in the Western Telegraph, and thankfully, kind-hearted well-wishers donated enough money to cover the operation costs in just a few days.

Linzi said: "We never expected her story to take off as it has; we thought that there would be people out there who would support her, but just from the article her fight has spread like wildfire."

In addition, another well-wisher, Trevor Adams, of Haverfordwest's Clever Cloggs, even offered to make, free of charge, a set of artificial limbs and shoes for Mrs T when her operation healed, having made a set of 'shoes' for a tortoise in the past.

Mrs T's operation was a success, but unfortunately too much of her front legs had to be amputated to make the artificial limbs.

Undeterred, Dale managed to craft a way for Mrs T to keep her mobility, with the help of model-making parts.

Dale added: "The vet had to cut them too short for Trevor to work with, but the wheels seem to be working very well.

"They took about a day to make up, I got the idea from another tortoise with wheels; I got all the bits from West Wales Modelling out by Whitland; it all cost about £30. She is getting on very well with them."