An ageing cat has been reunited with its owner after going missing.

Martine Docherty spent hours searching for her beloved pet and delivered thousands of leaflets offering a reward but in the end, Kitty was found just a few hundred yards from where she went missing in Gillingham.

Kitty disappeared in the early hours of Boxing Day while Miss Docherty was staying with her daughter in Glanville Road.

As reported in Friday’s Messenger, the timid animal, who usually only goes as far as the garden at his home in Portsmouth, escaped out of the front door and did not come back.

Distraught Miss Docherty delayed her return to the south coast when 15-year-old Kitty had still not been found. She walked the streets looking for her pet and posted 3,000 leaflets through letter boxes in the area.

After hours of fruitless searching Miss Docherty had almost given up hope but then she got a call from a man who lives in Barnsole Road, just around the corner from her daughter’s home, to say he had found Kitty. He had already checked his garage but when he checked again he found Kitty asleep.

Miss Docherty was reunited with Kitty on Thursday afternoon.

She said: “All those hours I was out in the rain handing out leaflets and calling him and he was just round the corner.

“I’m very happy, he looks a little bit thinner but he looks a lot better than I thought he would. I’m just happy because they said on the news it is getting colder and it is going to snow.”

Kitty was treated to a slap-up meal of tuna, chicken and cat food before returning to home with Miss Docherty on Friday.

The 55-year-old added: “I want to thank everyone who has been sharing and helping us find our little Kitty. Everyone has been so kind and we are so grateful.”