Mum's pride as son helps prise cat from dog's jaw in Higham Ferrers

Nicola Oliver's 17-year-old son Alex helped prise the dog's jaw open and suffered bites and claw scratches while saving the pet.

The cat - Joey - was taken to the vet but sadly did not recover after being anaesthetised.

"Alex saw a loose Staffordshire bull terrier grab hold of this cat," said Nicola.

"So he ran over to try to rescue it but the dog had locked its jaws on it."

"I couldn't believe how Alex just went in there straight away," added proud mum Nicola.

"He didn't care about his own welfare, he was only interested in saving the cat."

Nicola said the dog was shaking the cat in its jaw as if it were a toy.

"It was its animal instinct, it saw a fluffy thing and thought 'I'm going to chase it'," she said.

After struggling with the dog for a while, Alex and Nicola managed to prise its mouth open and free the cat.

At this point, the cat's owners had come out of their home to see what was happening on their lawn.

They took the cat to the vets and Nicola stayed with the dog until the police and the dog's owner arrived.

It has since transpired that the terrier had been roaming the street because of the inattention of a delivery driver.

"The dog escaped because an Amazon delivery driver left the back gate open," Nicola explained.

"The owner of the dog contacted Amazon and they gave Alex a £100 credit to spend and have offered to pay the vet fees."