A CAT had the adventure of a lifetime when it travelled from Warminster to Weston-super-Mare on top of its owner’s van.

Matt Haines, 46, left his home in St John's Road at 5.40am last Wednesday to go to work as usual but something very out of the ordinary happened as he parked up in the seaside resort.

Just as the plumber was about to leave his van, a black cat slid down the windscreen and stared at him with startled eyes.

Mr Haines, who lives with his wife Eva and their five children, said: “All of a sudden a cat fell down the windscreen and stared right at me.

“I was really shocked and thought it looked a little bit like my cat, Flo, but decided there was no way it could have been her.

“I got out of the van and the cat ran away so I chased after it. Once I caught it and picked it up I called Eva, who was at home, to ask if Flo was there and she said that she wasn’t.

“The cat then climbed onto my shoulder and that’s when I knew it was definitely Flo as we've been teaching her to do that recently.”

After realising the adventurous feline was his own pet, Mr Haines drove the terrified one-year-old all the way back to Warminster before heading back to work, much to the hilarity of his workmates.

“It’s safe to say everyone at work found it hilarious – jokes on the building site tend to stick for a long time so I don’t think I’ll hear the end of this for a while," he added.

“When I got back everyone kept on meowing at me and calling me a cat snatcher.”

Brave Flo remarkably clung on to the roof through bumpy terrain for an hour and fifteen minutes as Mr Haines completed the 45-mile journey from home to work.

To save her from any further trauma, Mr Haines strapped her safely into the passenger seat for the return journey.