SMILING like the cat that’s got the cream is little Alfie Payne, who is delighted after being reunited with his gorgeous kitty Lily, thanks to the Welwyn Hatfield Times.

The black fluffball was found in WGC soaked through, freezing cold and disorientated, by Kim Roberts.

She whisker-ed the moggy back home, before putting up posters and alerting the vets and the WHT.

Five-year-old Alfie’s mum, Tracey, said Lily, a mixed ragdoll/long haired breed cat, had been missing for a week this time round, but to say it wasn’t her first journey out would be an understatement.

“She’s a nightmare!” the Dawley resident said.

“Lily’s always going missing, mainly because she’s just so friendly and has a habit of following people.

“When we lived in Haldens she used to go up to the school on her own and make acquaintance with the school mums and children and then end up following them home and getting lost.

“We also used to hear that she had been spotted in the local pub!

“We were often getting knocks on the door with people returning her, but this time she had gone so long we didn’t think we would see her again, but thankfully we did. Now hopefully that we’ve moved she won’t go wandering again.”

Now back home, Lily will again form her paw-fect partnership with the Payne family’s lhasa-tzu dog, 13-year-old Poppy.

Tracey added: “I was really surprised to see Lily settle in so quickly again, as soon as I brought her back home she was play-wrestling with Poppy – they’re best of friends, and Alfie and Lily are like peas-in-a-pod, so it’s lovely for him.”

Alfie, who is in his first year at Rowans, said: “I always play with Lily, she chases my train set and watches TV with me.

“And also in the mornings she tries to drink the milk from my cereals!”