IF cats could talk then this lucky girl would have quite a story to tell after surviving a dramatic adventure.

Nellie the cat was back safe and secure at the Filby home of owner Jenny Limbert this week following her rescue from an 8ft deep pit in an old barn.

Jenny, 40, had put up posters in the village, dropped leaflets through doors and placed an appeal in the Mercury after her much-loved moggie disappeared at the start of last month.

It was spotted by reader Mollie Hudson who, remembering that husband John had previously rescued a cat from the barn at the old Hall Farm site in Filby, asked him to take a look again.

John, who used to be a foreman at the farm, spotted Nellie laying quietly at the bottom of the storage hole when he looked in the disused barn on Sunday.

Mollie said: “John thought the cat might be dead because she was so quiet and still, but when I looked I noticed her eyes were moving.

“We got a ladder and John carried her up, she was quite calm and affectionate, she was really lovely, bless her heart. It was lucky I thought to look there or the poor thing would have died.”

A delighted Jenny was amazed to hear that Nellie had been retrieved safe and well after being trapped in the farm building, which is next door to her home on Main Road.

She had all but given up hope of seeing Nellie again and rushed immediately to her neighbour’s house, where her cat was being kept, for an emotional re-union.

Jenny said: “I could not believe it when I got home and found a message on my phone that Nellie was safe. It was amazing when she plodded into the room.

I was dreading to think what might have happened to her and thinking about looking for another cat.

“I had been to look in the barn for her, but the doors were shut so I couldn’t see or hear her. She has lost a little weight and muscle strength and is a bit weary, but has coped very well with her ordeal. She follows me about and will not leave my sight so I am keeping her indoors for the time being.”

An office clerk at Palmer’s department store, Jenny adopted 16-month-old Nellie from the RSPCA centre in Stalham. Her previous cat Lucy died last year aged 18.