A CAT which survived a serious car crash near Oxford airport before vanishing into a field had an emotional reunion with its owners after a Kidlington woman found him a month later.

Martin and Liz Jones were driving on the A44 on September 1 when they had an accident near to the junction at Langford Lane.

Although they were not injured in the crash their pet cat Toffee ran off into a nearby field.

Pet owner Liz Jones said: "It was a write-off, it was a very serious crash on the road and we were very lucky to be alive.

"When we got out Toffee just rushed off out of the door and vanished into a field."

A search was then launched by the couple who live in London with postings on social media and friends and family joining in the search.

In their appeal they wrote: "We are devastated to have lost him and are hoping desperately that someone may find him nearby.

"He is a very friendly cat and once he recovers and is hungry, he may try to make friends and find people."

Ten days later Kidlington resident Emma Cox responded to the appeal and rang Mrs Jones to tell her they, too, were on the search.

Ms Cox, who is herself a cat owner, said: "They thought he was dead or not coming back. We didn’t think we would find him alive."

Ms Cox and her family continued the search for almost a month and after sightings from friends of the ginger cat in the local area she had a lucky break on Friday, September 23.

She said: "We were going to give up soon but we kept going and then there he was.

"They were over the moon when we spoke to them. They were overjoyed.

"He had only lost half a kilo but apart from that the only thing that is different now is he likes to sit on their lap when he didn’t before.”

Liz Jones said that now the 10-year old ginger and white domestic short hair cat had come home he was "fit as a fiddle".

She said: "It was just incredible. I took him to the vet straight away and apart from losing a bit of weight he is as fit as a fiddle.

"I think he has forgotten it has happened now."

She added that she and her husband was planning on visiting Emma and her family on Sunday at Witney to say thank you for all she had done to help in the search.