Rita was first seen in late 2006 when she ran into Marlon Dingle, Donna Windsor-Dingle, Paddy Kirk and Toni Daggert in a night club in Hotten. She recognised Marlon straight away but he couldn't place her, but Paddy remembered her. It turned out that they met before, much to annoyance of Paddy's love interest, Toni. Paddy spent time with Rita in the club but when he saw Toni get rejected, he left Rita and went home with Toni. Rita wasn't seen again until Paddy went to an art class and when he saw Rita, he followed her. Much to Paddy's surprise, Rita stripped off and started posing. After the class, Paddy took Rita for a drink in the Woolpack. Rita gave Paddy her number by writing it on his hand but he foolishly didn't write it down and it got smudged, so he was unable to call her. Eventually, Paddy went back to the art class and explained to Rita what happened with the number and she accepted it. They planned to meet but a prank from the Dingles caused Paddy to get stuck in the middle of nowhere, but Rita came to the rescue. Paddy and Rita finally went on a date but it nearly came to an abrupt end but Marlon's cab nearly hit Rita, only to be saved by Paddy. From then on, Rita wouldn't stop talking about her superhero Paddy and told him that she had told her parents and that they wanted to meet him. Paddy started to get sick of all the praise and Rita's parents, Jeff and Sue were just the same. Paddy snapped at a meal with the four of them, which caused Sue to run to the bathroom crying, followed by Rita. Jeff told Paddy that Rita's sister, Sally, was killed eight months earlier in a hit and run incident. Paddy felt terrible and tried to apologise but Rita wouldn't listen. Soon after, Paddy won Rita back after posing nude as a model in one of her art classes, but things went sour again after Paddy's veterinary partner Hari Prasard stole money from the company's accounts. Rita noticed this but thought it was a mistake. When people started taking their animals elsewhere, Rita tried to cheer Paddy up by talking to journalist Jasmine Thomas, to see if she could advertise the place by writing an article that would reassure people. However, Jasmine's boss, John McNally, wasn't pleased with the article and edited it so the story detailed the scandal caused by Hari and also made it seem like Paddy was in on it. When Paddy found out, he was furious and Rita was left worse off, once more she tried to make things better by throwing a party for him in the Woolpack, but Paddy was too upset to enjoy himself. Soon after Paddy made the decision to put all his energy into reviving his business and decided to put romance on hold until it was all sorted, leaving Rita gutted.
