AFTER 13 days without food and surviving sub-zero weather conditions a Hampshire cat has had an emotional reunion with its owner - thanks to Daily Echo readers.

Lucky, a 14-year-old male cat with high blood pressure, was reunited with owner Brenda Smith when she managed to coax him out from under a garden shed more than a mile away from his home in North Baddesley, Southampton.

Weighing only a quarter of his original body weight, Lucky was found after Daily Echo readers reported sightings of him after reading of his Christmas Day disappearance in the newspaper.

Mrs Smith said: "If he had been outside for any longer he would have died for sure.

"He was a quarter of his weight but otherwise in good health. Being such a large and well-fed cat had helped keep him alive for the last 13 days.

"He is very pleased to be back home with my other ginger cat and three Yorkshire terriers fussing over him.

"It was the Echo that saved his life."

Mrs Smith, 56, from West Lane, had been desperately leafleting all over North Baddesley in the hope that someone had seen Lucky.

But after receiving several phone calls, Mrs Smith was contacted by an Echo reader, saying a black and white cat had made a home under her shed, in Tottehale Close, North Baddesley.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to the lady who spotted him," Mrs Smith said.