A DISTRAUGHT pet owner has made a desperate plea for the collar from her dead cat to be returned.

Susan Burgess's cat, Claude, was knocked down last Monday morning, near the Norton roundabout in Worcester.

Miss Burgess, who lives in St Peter's, managed to find her beloved cat but the red collar he was wearing, with a phone number and address tag, was missing.

Miss Burgess, aged 36, believes it was taken by the person driving the car that hit Claude, in order to phone her to tell her.

On Monday evening she did get a call from an unknown person but the person said nothing and put the phone down. She believes they wanted to tell her but couldn't do it at the last minute.

She now just wants the collar back, as a memento of the six-year-old black cat that had come from Cats Protection just a year before.

"I don't blame anyone for the accident - these things happen - I just want what belonged to Claude returned," she said.

"I'm very emotional about my animals. Claude was lovely - he was my boy. I'd just like to have the collar back. They don't have to show themselves - if they could just pop it through the letterbox I'd be really grateful. I'm very upset about it."