Lost cat spotted by owner in window of closed shop

Frankie went missing on 8 April and was spotted two weeks later in a charity shop window in Salisbury

A cat that went missing for two weeks was spotted by its owners in the window of a closed charity shop.

Ruth and Richard Clarke had been the scouring the streets of Salisbury since 6 April looking for their cat, Frankie.

Mr Clarke said he was "flabbergasted" to spot the missing cat in the window of a Cancer Research charity shop.

Mrs Clarke, said: "He was sitting on top of a missing poster we had put through the shop's letter box."

It is thought Frankie squeezed through a small gap on the roof of the building and fell through a ceiling tile into the shop.

Mrs Clarke, said: "He was sitting on top of a missing poster, we had put through the shop's letter box."

Fighting the "temptation to break him out", the couple waited outside the shop for several hours for someone from Cancer Research with a key to free him.

"He was rubbing his head against the glass and I was posting cat treats through the letterbox," Mrs Clarke said.

"And when we finally got in, he hadn't made any mess, all he'd done was pull a load of toys off a shelf to make a bed."

The shut in cat had pulled cuddly toys down from a shelf to make himself a bed

Mrs Clarke said the couple were "in pieces" when the 18-month-old cat went missing.

She said they had spent two weeks putting up posters, posting appeals on social media and walking the city streets in the early hours calling his name.

Despite being "very thin" the young cat is "absolutely fine", according to the vet

Despite being "very thin" Howard Taylor, from Salisbury surgery The Vets, said Frankie was "absolutely fine".

"He was 4.3kg in November and yesterday he was 3.4kg, so he's lost a quarter of his weight," he said.

"But cats are very, very tough."