A Pembroke tortoise, who touched the hearts of local people, has got a new lease of life thanks to the inventiveness of her owner.

Poor 90-year-old tortoise Mrs T suffered appalling injuries when her legs were partially eaten by a rat as she hibernated.

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

Dale and Linzi have appealed for help in covering the £350 for Mrs T’s operations through an online Mrs T Tortoise Facebook page.

Now, after the story was reported in the Western Telegraph, kind-hearted well-wishers donated enough money to cover Mrs T’s 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.”

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 said: “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 30quid, she is getting on very well with them.”