SHE was the remarkable lady with a passion for helping vulnerable animals.

Barbara Dollery was a "respected figure in the cat rescue world", dedicating more than 25 years of her life to helping them.

At age 87, on September 13, Barbara passed away.

Barbara's Cat Rescue in Regents Park, Southampton, has seen a record number of needy moggies flying through its doors.

Daily Echo:

Barbara started rescuing cats more than 30 years ago, taking time to care them back to health at her home and travelling the county to catch homeless cats before finding them loving new homes.

Barbara has been involved in cat rescue since the mid 1980's when she worked with the Cat's Protection League.

In 1993 Barbara joined forces with Helen Farrar in cat and kitten rescue and in 1995 Barbara had purpose built cat pens installed.

Then in 1997, she decided to branch out on her own with Barbara's Cat Rescue.

On one occasion, Barbara rescued a mystery moggy off the streets in Winchester, who turned out to have travelled all the way from Spain.

In 2013, the small black kitten was taken in by Barbara when he was found wondering the streets.

But to her surprise, the kitten's microchip revealed that he was in fact 800 miles away from his home in Spain.

Barbara made it her mission to reunite the young Spanish stray she dubbed Jose Mourinho with his family.

The then eight-month-old cat was found roaming Winchester by a member of the public, who brought him straight to Barbara.

She immediately went to get his microchip read, which revealed that he was registered to a family in Spain.

Rescuing cats was a passion of Barbara and at time the rescue stretched her financial and emotional limits.

During an interview in 2008, she said to a Daily Echo reporter: "Many people say to me that they could never do what I do but I get great satisfaction seeing all the cats and kittens settling in their new homes.

"That is what keeps me going. I love all animals and want to help as many as I can."