A cat trapped under floorboards for three weeks is believed to have survived by drinking beer and eating bugs.

Ben Smith says his pet Leia clambered into his neighbour’s open floor in Deal, moments before it was tiled shut with her beneath.

Such was his family’s despair, they even shelled out £1,000 for a pet detective to help trace the missing animal.

But when the floorboards were eventually ripped up after neighbours heard Leia’s distressed cries, she emerged dishevelled but alive, with a half-drunk can of French lager close by.

Mr Smith’s daughter Kelly Cooper said: “A half-drunk tin of beer was found and we wondered if she‘d had a few sips from that.

“She could have also eaten small mammals, like mice, or insects, and quite possibly drank condensation from piping.

“We will never know how she survived all that time.

But she had lost a third of her weight when she was rescued.”

Leia, 11, is believed to have wandered into the St Patrick’s Road home while builders were renovating on the morning of April 11.

After it was clear she was missing, Mr Smith and daughters Amy Pirt and Ms Cooper desperately arranged for leaflets to be printed appealing for her return.

Over the coming weeks they were attached to lamp posts in surrounding streets and placed through letterboxes, while a pet detective was enlisted to ply their trade.

It would be 23 days before she was found near the alcoholic beverage, where her cries were likely drowned out by building noise and the radio.

Once the work had finished, the neighbours heard miaows from underfoot and cut a square meter opening before retrieving the exotic shorthair breed.

In a further strange twist, Leih, named after a Star Wars character, and by coincidence, was found on the annual day celebrating the film franchise, May 4.

Mr Smith, 83, told KentOnline: “I’m euphoric, I’m so pleased to have her back. Leia has been my only in-house companion since my wife died. For her to go suddenly missing was dreadful.”

“She is now 2.1kg (4lb 10oz), yet she was 3kg (6lb 12oz) when she went missing.

“We took her to the vet to check her over, and she was reasonably well considering, but was dehydrated and is still very traumatised.”

Mr Smith told how his wife died in September 2023 after a period of illness, and the cat has been his pet for two-and-a-half years.

An almost identical ordeal happened to a cat in Ramsgate two years ago,

Arthur vanished in June 2023 after being accidentally trapped under a neighbour’s floorboards for five weeks.

He was thought to have survived on spiders and pipe condensation, but lost half his bodyweight and was dehydrated.