A MUCH-LOVED family pet is enjoying the creature comforts of home after a six-week walk on the wild side.

The Herald reported how Shadow the black cat had gone missing in Strid Wood at Bolton Abbey.

Her Skipton owners at first feared she had gone into the treacherous waters of the Strid, but following our appeal for information they received a string of phone calls to report sightings of the cat.

She was still wearing her distinctive frayed collar and identity disc and apparently quite happy to play the wild rover.

The sightings - several around the Cavendish Pavilion - gave her owners hope but there were also gloomier calls to report similar cats killed on the road.

One, found just west of Rylstone, could have been the family cat but was almost unrecognisable. A trip to the vets for the body to be scanned found no trace of the identity chip that Shadow carries. Reasoning that the unfortunate animal was still someone's pet, Shadow's owners gave it a decent burial in their garden.

After six weeks the trail seemed to be going cold when a phone call came out of the blue.

The voice on the answering machine said jokingly: "This is the Hambleton Kitchen Company - we are holding your cat to ransom!"

Melvin Robinson, of Hambleton Kitchens, went on to explain that Shadow appeared to be well and was sitting quite contentedly in the middle of their warehouse.

It seemed that after six weeks of avoiding all human contact, she had simply grown tired of the wild life and turned herself in. She had already crossed the busy A65 and was heading home to Skipton.

Fortunately she was still wearing her collar and identity disc, making it an easy job to contact her delighted owners. To celebrate the happy homecoming they went out to order the favourite family meal - fish and chips twice...and a fish.

This week they thanked everyone who had helped them find their pet, especially the Bolton Abbey estate workers whose regular sightings had continued to give them hope.