Is This Your Rat? Transit Officials Hope To Reunite Bus Rider With Rodent

THOUSAND PALMS (CBSLA.com) — Officials are hoping to reunite a 2-year-old satin female rat with its owner after it was found on a Coachella Valley bus.

Transit officials determined the rodent was lost on Sunday when a SunLine Transit rider brought the pet on the bus in his shirt and later got off - without his companion, according to John Welsh, spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

Crew members at Sunline's maintenance yard later located the rat and called the county animal shelter.

The rat - nicknamed "Sunny" by county staffers - has become a favorite at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Thousand Palms, where it will remain for a few days in anticipation of being recovered by her owner.

"She is a very cute and very social animal," said animal services Officer James Huffman, who originally responded to retrieve the critter.

Animal services staffers even took to posting two short video clips on YouTube showing Sunny climbing on the backs and arms of some employees.

While transit officials expressed hope in reuniting Sunny with its owner, "we are going to engage in greater education to our riders on SunLine policy as it relates to animals carried on our vehicles," said SunLine Transit Agency CEO/General Manager Lauren Skiver.

If the owner doesn't come forward, Sunny will be transferred to nearby Pet Land Place animal rescue, where she will be made available for a new owner, Welsh said.