FEARS of a 'cat burglar' at large in West Oxfordshire have intensified after one feline was found alive almost nine miles from home.

Poppy went missing from the Heath family's Minster Lovell home in October, but was taken to Cogges vets in Witney after she was found in Eynsham.

The cat was taken in for a check-up by a lady from Eynsham, where vets scanned its microchip and called the family.

Read again: three cats 'stolen' from front garden of family's Minster Lovell home

Poppy was described as being 'very afraid' and 'thinner than she was' by one family member.

The cat was one of three to go missing from the front garden of the family's home between October 21 and December 9 last year.

The Heaths believe all three animals were stolen, after another Minster Lovell resident reported last month that someone had tried to steal their cat.

A Facebook post read: "Someone tried to grab my cat last night from our garden fence.

"The person must have been quite tall as I saw the top of their head over a six ft fence."

Read again: Another Minster Lovell family reports three cats missing

This comes after three cats vanished from the Lord family's home, also in Minster Lovell, between last March and October.