A cabbie's kindness helped save the life of an injured fox cub.

The female fox cub seemed badly hurt when taxi driver Brian McKenna, of Consett, County Durham, found it lying by a roadside, probably after being hit by a car.

He took it to a vet in the town, believing the animal would have to be put down.

Vet Silke Shanks said: "She was in a terrible state. She had seizures, was drooling and was really at death's door. It appears that she was chased by a dog or something on to a road and was scraped by a car.

"In the end, we took it home and nursed it and she is absolutely fine. We even walk it in a harness. We plan either to take it back to the exact spot where it was found because they do run back to their mothers, or take it to a foxes rescue centre which is based in Northampton. We've called it Kap after the German name for the fox cub in the Fox and Hounds Disney film."

Mr McKenna found the cub just outside Rowlands Gill last Saturday. He said: "There were people driving around it and it was clearly alive and I thought, 'No way.'

"I stopped the car, put the hazard lights on, and moved it to the verge, but I couldn't just leave it. I thought she would have to be put down, but the vet said, 'Let's see' and I couldn't believe the recovery when I went back a few days later. Foxes get such a bad name, but I don't believe it. It was a lovely, wild creature."