Every day Sergeant Podge disappears at around 6pm. And every morning Mrs Bullard finds him sitting by the roadside a mile and a half away, ready for his more luxurious return journey in the leather passenger seat of her Toyota Land Cruiser.

The next day he wandered off again . . . and she found him waiting for her in the same spot in St Augustine's Road, Bournemouth, where she opened the passenger door and he jumped in beside her.

"He is always in the same place at the same time waiting. If it is raining I clap my hands and he appears from under a hedge.

Mrs Bullard, who has another son Daniel, 16, plus four other cats and two dogs, said Podge's taxi is normally her 4x4 but she sometimes uses her Maserati sports car.