CATS may have nine lives – but this plucky pet has proved that hamsters have quite a few as well – thanks to a dog.

Worried owners Joe and Jake Marsh, pictured, aged 11 and 9, thought the game was up for eight-month-old Jeff, who had escaped from his cage and disappeared.

But help was at hand from their neighbour’s eight-year-old Labrador Rooney, who sniffed out Jeff in the garden, gently picked him up in his mouth and dropped the lucky hamster at his owner’s feet.

Mum Lisa, 42, of Charlton Road, Shirley, Southampton, said: “A couple of hours after he’d gone missing when I found Jake in the garden by himself, praying for Jeff’s safe return.

“Then we got a knock on the door and Tammy from next door had Jeff in her hands.

“She said that they saw their dog Rooney sniffing at something in their garden.

“Then he came back with something in his mouth and dropped it on the floor at their feet. Jeff was totally covered in the dog’s saliva and a bit wild-eyed and freaked out, but he’s absolutely fine.”