A resident from Ellesmere has been overwhelmed by the support she received from the community after her beloved cat went missing for 37 days.

Nicola Reincke reported Shelly, her tortoiseshell cat, missing on Christmas Eve and asked for the public's help to keep vigilant through an Ellesmere Facebook group.

Over a month passed and Nicola and her family were getting increasingly worried after there was no sightings of her.

After 37 days Shelly was finally spotted outside of the Tesco store in Ellesmere.

Nicola said: "I'm so glad she is home, we thought she was gone forever and she missed all of her Christmas presents.

"There were so many people involved, Julie Smith - whose mum used to own the cat before she passed away - and me and my family were out looking for her most days. We did a 250-door leaflet drops and Pete's Cafe on Cross Street and Tesco had posters displayed.

"Julie also offered a £50 reward but we heard nothing. Then on January 30 I was up early and I had missed calls on my phone from all kinds of numbers. I had so many messages telling me to get down to Tesco. I drove down there but Shelly had already wandered off. I couldn't find her anywhere so I went home excited but deflated that I'd missed her. "

Later on in the day, Nicola had a call telling her Shelly was back at the store again.

"I had a call from two young girls, Cara Edwards and Millie Clegg, who had seen the messages on Facebook and had kept Shelly playing and fussed until until I could get there and I took them their £50 reward.

"I just couldn't get over how many people had got involved and are pleased I've found her. I'm not originally from here so I hardly know any of them. I had so many messages from people offering to go and watch down at Tesco whilst I was at work. She has settled straight back in and I will be taking her for a check up. I'm going to save up and get her a GPS tracker collar for next time."