Trading standards officers have found a stowaway feral cat who survived a three-week journey across the Atlantic without food or water.

The cat was captured in a warehouse in Basildon, Essex, on 10 January after a trip in a storage container from Chicago to Charleston, Illinois, then to New York and England.

Eight-month-old Diamond Lil', as she is called by quarantine workers, will stay in Colchester for six months as a precaution against rabies.

Joe Maerz, the Essex County Council trading standards officer who captured the stowaway, said: "I think it's fair to say the cat used up some of its nine lives."

Good health

Feral cats are wild and generally homeless, but it is hoped someone will claim Diamond Lil'.

Mike Parish, of Par Air Services who are looking after the cat, said she is in good health, but "very nervous".

"Ideally we would like for an owner who may be in Chicago to come forward and reclaim their pet," he said.

The council said a cat which arrived in the UK from Israel two years ago survived for 24 days before being caught.