How did we get here? I've been put in this strange glass tank with my brothers and sisters and a teeny tiny white rat with red eyes! She doesn't look like us as we are brown and white. Awwww she looks so lonely, I wonder where her family could be?

I know , I'll try to befriend her and look out for her as it's very scary in this tank. All day long we see strange faces pressed against the glass and hear tapping to get our attention, it's really scary.

Sometimes we are taken out of the tank and held by different sized hands which we bit a few times but only because we were really scared and didn't know what our fate would be.

I felt sad as my brothers and sisters were slowly taken away from me, I hope they are ok.

The little white rat was very shy and always curled up in the corner of the tank, so I went over to her and said " don't worry, I'll look after you and we will be just fine". Then we would snuggle up together and feel safe.

Then one day it happened! The tank lid opened, again the Big Hands came in and we all ran to one corner as we were frightened, dreading our fate.

To our horror , me and the little white rat were grabbed from the tank and put into a little cardboard box with holes in it. We could hear strange voices and there was alot of movement going on.

Then we went for a long bumpy ride. Even though I was really scared, I had to reassure the little white rat that everything will be ok as she looked terrified.

When we stopped moving, the lid of the box opened and I thought to myself , if they put their hands in, I'll give them a little nip so that they can't harm us, but to our surprise we saw two smiling faces looking down at us and gently talking to us with calm voices. They didn't put their hands in, but carried on smiling and talking to us. We still didn't trust them as we didn't know what was going to happen to us.

We started moving again for a few seconds as we entered this strange place which was filled with yummy smells and different noises to the ones we were used to. This was the place where the smiling faces lived.

We let the smiling faces use their hands to take us out without nipping them, and we were gently put on a large soft area which they called a sofa.

Wow this was great! We've never been allowed to run around freely like this before, could this be a dream?

Then the smiling faces sat on the soft area with us , gently stroking us as we explored The Sofa.

Hang on a minute! Is that food? Oh wow this is Rat-topia! It tastes delicious and there's plenty of it too. We also had fresh water to drink.

As the day went on, we were put into our new rat pad, where we had lots of lovely food and water which we could have whenever we wanted it and there was also some lovely soft stuff in there for us to snuggle up in. this was lovely and cozy.

I looked at the little white rat and said " see, I told you everything would be alright".

We have been with these smiling faces for a long time now and have learnt to trust them alot. We also learnt that they are called Sayj and Al, and we know that we are safe and very much loved by them both, and we love them too.

We have names too! My name is Rita and the little white rat is named Poppy.

Together we are a very happy family.

I hope our brothers and sisters and rat friends are lucky enough to find a loving home to live in!