Rose, a white rat and supporting actress in Broadway hit The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has died aged eight months.

Just four days after making her Broadway debut, Rose was fatally injured when a metal door on one of the shelves she was playing on came off its hinges and landed on her, the New York Times reports.

“It was just a horrible freak accident,” said trainer Lydia DesRoche, who noted that Rose was just coming into her own on the stage.

The role in the play required the rat to pop out of its cage and give lead character Christopher a kiss, something Rose had almost mastered.

"She was really getting into the kiss,” Ms. DesRoche said. “She was just starting to open up.”

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A photo posted by Lydia DesRoche (@lydia.d) on Jan 13, 2016 at 11:12am PST

Rose’s short life was a real rags to riches story.

She was one of hundreds of albino rats that were dumped on the West Side Highway near 57th Street last summer, a still unexplained event and a strange one given albino rats' popularity as pets, reptile food and lab subjects.

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The city attempted to poison the rats, but over 500 were saved by rescuers, and Rose ended up adopted by the trainer.

“She was always on those shelves,” Ms DesRoche said. “She would run up and down them and dangle from them. She’s just a feisty, agile, fearless precocious rat, and she loved adventure.”

Pixar, are you listening?