A LITTLE girl saved the life of her cat after she heard his “strange meow” from a nearby field.

Ella Jones, eight, was responsible for feeding her three cats –Marley, Miffy and Chandler – last Thursday morning.

But when eight-monthold Marley didn’t appear as normal she heard a strange cry outside and immediately alerted her mum, Layla Chester.

Ms Chester, 36, from Whitecross, found Marley impaled by his leg on a metal fence spike in a neighbour’s garden.

She said: “It’s the most traumatic thing I have ever had to witness in my life – to see an animal in such pain. But I didn’t realise how grown-up Ella had become.

“It’s not until something like that happens and you see her act so bravely. The courage she showed and her maturity was amazing.”

Ms Chester, who works at Tesco in Belmont, held up Marley while Ella retrieved her mum’s phone so she could call the vet.

Ella waited indoors so she could take the vet to Marley – who had been taken in by Ms Chester and Ella after his owner became ill and could no longer care for him.

“I tried to hold him up a little bit and I know from first-aid training that if something is going right through something, or someone, you can’t move them as you don’t know what the damage is,” Ms Chester said.

Vet Ralph Douthwaite, and veterinary nurse Emma Champ, from The Laurels, had to cut Marley from the fence.

Once at the veterinary surgery he was treated and given pain relief and anaesthetic.

He is now recovering.

Ms Chester said: “Ella was looking after me and she is only eight years old. I’m so, so proud of her.”