A continental cat will be coming to stay in Falmouth after a woman was compelled to take in a young stray while holidaying in France.

Rebecca James, aged 20, from Longfield, thought kitten Oscar was “going to die” when she found him in hot fields earlier this month.

She was visiting the family of her boyfriend, Clement Camus Williams, near Orléans, when the two of them decided to take a walk, and came upon the four-week old animal in the grass.

She said: “We were staying in the outback of France. I was saying it was strange that there were no animals around here, and then we saw a little ginger tabby.

“We thought it was going to die. It was about 24 to 25 degrees. We went looking for its mother, to try and find out why it was left there. We took it back to the house and gave it milk and biscuits, and took it around the estate looking for its owners.”

The pair took the kitten, named after a Chelsea and Brazil footballer, to a vet in Paris, who said he was about four weeks old and should still have been with his mother.

The vet said Becky and Clement would be able to keep Oscar, and bring him back to Falmouth, but would have to wait until he is 12 weeks old and had been vaccinated and provided with a pet passport.

Now Becky is awaiting the time in early August when her boyfriend will return from France, bringing their foundling with him.

Falmouth Packet: