A regional daily went one better than its sister title with a story of how it helped reunite another missing pet with its owner.

The Eastern Daily Press recently helped return a stowaway cat to its owners after it hitched a van ride with a delivery driver across the county.

Not to be outdone, Archant stablemate the Evening Star has now published an even more dramatic tale – reuniting a pet hawk with its owner after it was seen attacking a kitten.

The Ipswich-based paper reported that a red-tailed hawk with a four-feet wingspan was on the loose and had picked up a young cat in its talons before dropping it – enabling its worried owner to track it down.

When the hawk’s owner, who asked not to be named, read the story in the Evening Star, he realised it must be his missing bird of prey and he went to the street where it had been seen to track down the kitten’s owner, David Alexander, pictured above with the predator.

And the tale had a happy ending when Tia the hawk was recaptured after appearing again, while the traumatised kitten also returned home soon after.

The hawk’s owner saw the bird in Mr Alexander’s garden just after arriving at the house and managed to tempt her with a dead quail.

He said: “I feel ecstatic to finally have her back. It’s been five weeks since she escaped so it’s been a long time to wait.

“My heart was really beating when I prepared to grab her. I was so worried that she’d get scared and fly off again.

“But to have her back is just such a relief. She broke free by breaking the jesses on her legs – that gives you idea of how powerful she is.

“When she escaped she was of good weight so she didn’t need to hunt immediately but after a while she got hungry and set her sights on the kitten.”

Mr Alexander’s kitten Edith was at first so traumatised by her encounter with Tia that she did not return home for several days and he said she was still shaken by it.

He added: “But at least she’s back in the warm now and I’m sure she’ll make a full recovery. It’s always nice when a story has a happy ending.”