This is the tale of Mr Nibbles and how he came to be lost.
He was left in the pocket of a woman's coat. And that coat was surrounded by clothes and shoes inside a zipped-up bag.
And that bag was left on a South Dunedin doorstep.
When Rowan McArthur, a Cutten St resident and co-founder of the Free Shop Dunedin, opened the bag, she noticed something in the pocket of the coat.
"I just screamed," Ms McArthur said, after pulling out the white and brown juvenile rat from its hiding place.
While the Free Shop - where goods can be taken to be given to those in need - had accepted a variety of goods, it had had nothing quite like Mr Nibbles, as he has been named.
"It is a first for us ... we aren't the SPCA," said Ms McArthur, who co-founded the shop last year with friend Feather Shaw.
She believed Mr Nibbles was a stowaway rather than a donation, and hoped the person who gave the items would return to claim the pet.
Although Mr Nibbles was making himself at home, and developing a taste for diet dog food, seeds, and fresh fruit and vegetables, the Free Shop founders were keen on returning him to his owner.
"I'm sure someone misses him."
