A PET owner saved her cat from the jaws of a Staffordshire bull terrier.

New mum Lesley Waddingham had just returned home from having her elderly Doberman put to sleep when she heard a terrible crash against the front door.

The 38-year-old rushed out to see a dog chase down her cat Gary and pin it against the floor.

Mrs Waddingham, from Drakes Way, Hatfield, said: “The dog had its mouth around the cat’s middle, I had to haul him off.

“I was left with Gary just laying there in a pool of blood, and he’d urinated due to fright.”

The family rushed the cat to the vet, believing he would die in their arms on the way.

Gary, 15 this week, lost teeth and had internal trauma and is still being nursed back to health.

Mrs Waddingham added: “A few minutes later and I would have been left with a dead cat. People need to think before they let their dogs out without leads.”