GRUMPY the cat has been reunited with his family after being snatched to safety from a raging moorland grass fire.

Horwich firefighters rescued Grumpy, who had burned all his paws, from the blaze on the outskirts of Leigh.

He was taken to the Bolton Destitute Animal Shelter where staff desperately tried to track down his owner.

Grumpy, a Burmese Siamese cross, was treated by a local vet, and after three days 'lost', was finally reunited with his anxious owner, Dorothy Jepson. Dorothy, who lives in a farm in Culcheth, said: "The moorland fire was on the edge of our land and the cat must have wandered into it.

"We searched all our buildings looking for him, and when we could not find him, began to worry that he had been killed in the fire, or was lying badly injured and suffering somewhere.

"The firemen were still damping down at the scene and my husband asked one if they had come across a cat, or its remains.

"There had been so many firemen there, and my husband was so very fortunate to just happen to speak to one who remembered what had happened to the cat.

"I am so very relieved. I was beginning to think the worst."

The four-year-old cat, has been with Dorothy and her family since being a kitten. She said: "We called him Grumpy because as a kitten he constantly grumbled at everyone. The name stuck, even though he is now the friendliest cat you could wish to meet."

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