In Wales, a 90-year-old tortoise names Mrs T, was the victim of nature's cruelty when she was attacked by rats in her hutch while hibernating.
The rodents ate the poor creature's front legs - leaving her alive but maimed.
Her owner, however, was not content to leave the animal motionless. After initially planning to have a local cobbler make up prosthetics to be affixed to what remained of Mrs T's legs, it emerged that the tortoise would need to be amputated.
Instead, owner Jude Ryder glued a set of wheels to Mrs T's shell using a resin to attach wheels, and now moves even faster than before.
This isn't, however, the first time such a plan has been employed - in March 2014, a 23-year-old marginated tortoise named Septimus was given model aeroplane wheels after a rat attack left him with almost identical injuries.
The oldest tortoise in Britain was also killed in a rat attack in 2013, at age 130.