A woman who rescued a rat her cat had caught says she paid back the favour – by stopped her house going up in flames.

Caroline Davis, who has terminal cancer which can make her very drowsy, fell asleep while smoking a cigarette in her dressing gown at home in Peterborough.

It started burning a hole in the fabric, without her realising anything was wrong.

But she says Ratty sprang into action, climbing onto her and waking her up.

She believes the rat even picked up the cigarette and moved it to a non-flammable surface, as she found it on the tiled conservatory floor which was metres away from where she fell.

Mum-of-two Caroline, 61, 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.’

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Caroline says Ratty was brought into her home 18 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 and raise her as her own.

Caroline said: ‘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 she’s on means she suffers from a mild form of narcolepsy.

‘This particular night I was on the sofa having a cigarette when I nodded off and the ember fell on my dressing gown – causing it to set alight,’ she said.

Meanwhile husband Malcolm, a retired orthopaedic nurse, was fast asleep upstairs.

Caroline said: ‘I have been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and the treatment and medication makes me fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

‘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!’

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