There are shelters for homeless people, kennels for stray cats and dogs but now, even rats have their own saviour when hard times bite.

Judi Walker has been looking after the welfare of domestic but destitute rodents in Worthing for seven years and has rehoused around 400 animals of all shapes and sizes.

She is also a beacon of hope for hard-up hamsters, down-at-heel dormice and cheerless chinchillas - but her specialty is rats.

Judi, 43, of Dawes Close, Worthing, said: "They are all just so lovely. They are so interesting. They are always doing something and I can sit and lose myself watching them for hours.

"I put them in a pouch around my neck and take them out. As long as there are no dogs around I can let them out.

"They don't go far - they go a certain distance and then come back, going 'Oh, mummy!'. They've got an awful lot of love in them."

Mum-of-two Judi, who is unemployed and lives with husband Dave, gets requests from zoos, pet shops and private homes. She charges nothing for her trouble and can never turn down a needy rat.

She said: "I take rats from all walks of life. I get them down to Worthing Animal Clinic and then I try to rehome them as soon as possible in good homes.

"At the moment, without counting the three that are mine, I've got 17 rats. I often get calls from people who are moving. One girl phoned up in tears who had to give up her rat because she was going to university and living on campus.

"Other people just get bored with them. We got a poor little rat yesterday which was 12 or 15 weeks old and came from a halfway house in Lancing. The other three rats that were with it take it in turns to mother her.

"We picked them all up, because the lad who owned them had gone out on Sunday morning and they hadn't seen him since.

"They had no food and no water and there were maggots in the cage.

"We also got some a while ago from an animal experimentation lab and managed to rehome them. They'd been, how shall we say, liberated."

Although her business is called Rat Rescue, Judi will help any small animal which has suddenly found itself destitute.

Floods in October 2000 devastated homes and businesses in Lewes, leaving 400 animals from the Fur Feathers 'n' Fins pet shop, in Cliffe High Street, without homes.

But Judi, who lost the sight in her left eye when she was struck by an exploding 3l Coke bottle 15-years-ago, came to the rescue and took a menagerie of hamsters, birds, chipmunks and even tarantulas into her home, making appeals for new homes via the internet.

She said: "It was awful - we had wall-to-wall cages. I'm not a mad animals person but if something needs help and I can, I will.

"Dave is very long-suffering. He keeps saying 'Jude, no more. We're full up.' But then all of a sudden another deserving case comes along."

Judi started her mission of mercy after looking after a rat belonging to her son, James Gallagher, now 21, when he went away to college. She soon bought another and the love affair spiralled.

She said: "When people think of rats, they immediately picture big, horrible sewer rats. But the ones we keep are domesticated rats.

"They are not huge, like wild rats. They vary in size and colour. They are all given different names and they all learn their names and come running when you call them.

"You can teach them things - you can train them. They are really intelligent.

"The most I have had at one time is 30. I never rehome just a single rat, they always go in pairs. They always need their own kind with them, or else they get lonely when the owner goes out for the day."