This young tattoo artist from New Jersey who moved to live in Belfast in Northern Ireland two years ago has created an artwork dedicated to her big-footed rodent pal named Togo.

The young woman, named kit, said she bought Togo after wandering into a pet shop on impulse, and fell in love with the young Jerboa (Rodentia Dipodidae) a hopping rodent not dissimilar to a kangaroo that lives in the desert.

He is a year old and she purchased him from the corner shop in Belfast.

She said: “We came across him at a small corner shop here in Belfast. We only went in for a wee look out of curiosity and ended up with a new family member. He was so friendly as soon as we saw him and came right up to us and hopped into my hands.

“He uses his free time to build nests and walls in his tunnel. We often leave his door open so he has free roam of the living room and the bedroom. He’ll come out to speed around really fast and then he just takes himself back to bed when he’s done. He is a very responsible little guy.

“He is a desert animal so he doesn’t drink water, but he gets fresh lettuce and veg everyday. Very picky about his vegetables though. (We’ve tried everything.)

“He has finch seed but his favorites are sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. He also enjoys the occasional nibble of a tea biscuit.

“He can jump more than nine feet and he can run 24km/h and sometimes it just gets the “zoomies” or at least that’s what we call it.

“It is these wee bursts of energy.”

She said Togo lived alone and they had considered getting him a friend, but then discovered that they were solitary animals that prefer to live on their own and therefore decided to spare him the stress.”

She often shares pictures of her tattoos that she does at the shop where she works in Belfast, called “A Sailors Grave”, and these include artwork of the tattered she did for her pal Togo.