Congratulations to May's Kent Pet of the Month - Poppy the duprasi gerbil.

Readers were blown away by her touching tale of a loving family adopting her from a neglectful home and now she's basking in the spotlight.

Find out how to enter June's Kent Pets Tournament below

The gerbil was left underweight and with overgrown bottom teeth in her last home when her owners became bored of her.

After she and her mum, Amber, were rescued by their new family she recovered and began to enjoy playing again - given more to do with her sand pit and hamster wheel.

Poppy's family entered the competition as some light fun and their son has been thrilled to see their pet rise through the ranks.

The duprasi was the only contestant to not have a social media platform to call for votes on. She was truly the under-gerbil of the month.

So the family were completely blown away by the wave of support coming from their colleagues and friends.

Poppy's owner said: "Ourselves and Poppy are so pleased Poppy has won May's pet of the month KentOnline tournament after some very tough competition.

Poppy runs on hamster wheel alongside mum, Amber

"We would like to thanks all our friends, family, work colleagues and KentOnline readers for voting for Poppy, the support has meant a lot to us as a family.

"Poppy will be enjoying a reward of extra blueberries, treats and cuddles alongside her mum Amber who I think may be a little jealous of Poppy' s new found fame.

"She even has her own little crown.

Poppy enjoy some time scurrying about in the sand pit

"Poppy is now a very happy and healthy little duprasi who is now at an ideal weight even though she still struggles to eat a lot of foods that other duprasi's eat due to her teeth and she is running on her wheel faster than ever.

"When she first came to us she did not have the strength to even to do that.

"We hope she continues to have a healthy happy life with our family and we are very proud to have Poppy as our pet."

For those new to the game, every month we will be choosing eight animals across Kent for readers to explore the lives of and vote on who will be Kent's Pet of the Month.

Every week readers will vote on pairs of animals to go to the next round until only one remains.

Do you think your pet has what it takes to win next month's Kent Pet's Tournament?

To enter, email details about your pet (such as pictures, name, breed, age and funny stories) to sbird@thekmgroup.co.uk

Follow May's Kent Pets Tournament from round one by clicking here.

To read more about Kent’s furry, flying and finned friends, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Kent