A WOMAN who spent hundreds of pounds hiring a pet detective to find her missing cat has been reunited with her beloved moggie – after he was found by a neighbour two streets away.

Sarah Holland, 36, of Scotland Road in Buckhurst Hill, was left heartbroken when nine-year-old Teddy vanished in December and took the unusual step of hiring the Animal Search UK agency in an attempt to track him down.

Despite door-to-door enquiries by detectives and investigations into possible cat haters in the area, the missing moggie was nowhere to be found, with the agency describing his out-of-character disappearance as a “complete mystery”.

But after the story appeared in the Guardian a neighbour suddenly realised that Teddy was in their own back garden stuck up a large pine tree.

Ms Holland said: “I'm really delighted. The people in the house came back from holiday and noticed him stuck up there. They must've seen all the publicity because they rang me later in the day and sure enough it was him.

“He was very skinny when we found him so I think he might have been stuck up there a long time, but other than that he seems to be fine. I took him to the vet and now I'm just trying to fatten him up so he gets back to his old self.”

Teddy's vanishing act caused quite a stir in the neighbourhood, with the pet detectives scouring high and low, checking dozens of gardens, sheds and alleyways, as well as distributing hundreds of flyers.

“I kept getting lots of neighbours knocking on the door asking if we'd found him yet, so many people have helped, so it's great to know it's paid off and I have him back,” she added.

Pet detective Tom Watkins, who spearheaded the search in Buckhurst Hill, said: "It's marvellous news he's back although obviously we are disappointed that on the day we didn't find him during our search.

"We searched as far as we could in the time we had and we were quite close to that road but it's not one we went down, but the owner is satisfied with the work we did."

He added: "But it's an amazing story. I've never heard of a cat surviving for so long up a tree with no food. I hope it shows to people that if your cat does go missing there's no reason to give up hope."