Cats are known for landing on their feet.

But Daisy the short-haired tabby needed a fair bit of good luck too, after surviving death by a whisker.

The fortunate feline is currently the centre of attention at Wangford Veterinary Clinic, where she is being nursed back to health – after being found amid the rubbish at a nearby waste site.

Daisy – as she was named by staff at the clinic – was spotted drinking from a puddle by a worker at Wangford Landfill Site in Hill Road last Tuesday. It is thought she had become trapped in a skip and was tipped out along with the contents when it was emptied, but somehow she escaped injury.

After an examination, she was found to be severely dehydrated and close to starvation but, apart from looking rather bedraggled, she appeared to be otherwise unharmed.

She has not been micro-chipped, meaning Wangford Vets have no way of tracing her owner.

However, veterinary nurse Jill Asquith said Daisy was such a friendly cat that one of the staff would keep her if no one came forward to claim her. “She couldn’t stand up or anything when she arrived,” she said.

Vet Walter Stöhr, who examined Daisy, said she would probably have died of thirst and starvation if she had not been found.