A CAT is being hailed a hero after finding his badly injured brother and dragging him home to safety.

And his owner says a human who did the same thing would have been given a medal.

Hamish, a one-year-old black short-hair cat, is believed to have been on his way home to Bond Avenue, West Moors, after visiting St Mary's First School where he gets a fuss made of him, when he was struck by a vehicle.

He ran away injured from the scene, and a neighbour contacted his owners, the Flett family, to let them know what had happened.

Sarah Flett and two of her three children - Lucy, nine, and Max, six - went out in the pouring rain to search for him, and husband Tony joined the search when he came home from work.

When they asked their vet if anyone had handed in their pet, receptionist Gill Sharp of St Mary's Veterinary Clinic in Ferndown also went out to search with her Jack Russell, but to no avail.

Despite 12 hours of looking they could not find him anywhere and they had to abandon the search.

Just as the family had all but given up hope of finding him alive, Hamish's brother Guinness went out the next morning and to their joy and astonishment, dragged the injured Hamish home just an hour later.

Hamish was rushed to the vet and underwent an operation and was expected home yesterday.

Tony Flett, 30, a marine, said: "The cat not only found his brother but dragged him home so that we could help him as the injured cat had a broken pelvis and back."I'm a marine and if you did that you would get a medal," he added, "This is a really heart-warming story and one of courage by two cats."

Housewife Sarah, 27, said: Hopefully he is going to be okay."