Tinsel: Cat found in car engine reunited with owner

A cat which was driven from Birmingham to London trapped in a car engine has been reunited with her owner.

The tortoiseshell feline, nicknamed Tinsel, was found on Christmas Day.

The Celia Hammond Animal Trust previously announced its plans to rehome Tinsel after "giving up hope" finding her owner.

But the trust received a call from a woman who said Tinsel was "definitely her cat" and has taken her back to Birmingham where they were reunited.

The appeal to trace Tinsel's owners was shared thousands of times online after she was found outside a block of flats in east London, about 130 miles (209km) away from where the car's journey started.

People outside the flats took her in until she could be collected by the animal rescue charity.

But they received little information from the driver about where in Birmingham he had come from, making the search for Tinsel's owner more difficult.

The woman, who did not have access to social media, was not aware of her cat's discovery until she was told by a relative who had seen the campaign on social media.

When the owner sent pictures of her missing cat, it was matched to Tinsel through her "distinctive" markings.

In a Facebook post the trust said: "[The owner] was absolutely delighted that her cat was safe as she and her other two cats had been missing her.

"She couldn't believe that her cat had ended up in London and had survived such a perilous journey."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.