Image copyright RSPCA Image caption The cat has been nicknamed Phileas Mogg, after Jules Verne's fictional globetrotter

A black cat has ridden his luck by taking a 250-mile trip under a car bonnet and escaping with paw burns.

The aptly-nicknamed Phileas Mogg began his trip in Warmingham, Cheshire when he got inside Colin Woodward's Audi A4.

The retired farmer inadvertently took the cat on two motorways, over the Welsh border and through a car wash before he was found when he arrived at a friend's home near Bristol.

The RSPCA's Simon Coombs said the trip had cost Phileas one of his nine lives.

Mr Woodward said he thought he heard a cat under his car at his Cheshire home on 11 November, but checked and found nothing so set off.

Over the next few days, he drove to nearby Sandbach and Wettenhall, over the border to Wales to visit Bangor-on-Dee races, down to Cheltenham and on to Easton-in-Gordano, near Bristol, to see a friend.

'Tale to tell'

When he arrived, on 13 November, he heard the cat again and found Phileas "between the front wheel and the headlight".

He said he "couldn't believe [his] eyes" when the tom was released by a mechanic and was "just relieved he survived".

Phileas was taken to RSPCA Bristol, where his burned paws were treated.

The charity has been unable to trace his owners but Mr Woodward said he hoped the search would be successful.

"He's a lovely cat [and] he will certainly have a tale to tell them about his adventure," he said.

Mr Coombs said Phileas "was lucky to escape with some burns to his paws".

"If cats really had nine lives, he's lost one of them."

Appealing for information, he added it was possible Phileas was not from Warmingham but had "jumped on board along the way, so his owners could come from any of these places".