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Crimean Tom, also known as Sevastopol Tom, saved British and French troops from starvation during the Crimean war in 1854.The regiments were occupying the Russian town of Sevastopol and could not find food. Tom could. He led them to hidden caches of food stored by Russian soldiers and civilians.Tom was taken back to England with the soldiers when the war was over. After his death in 1856, he was stuffed and preserved and is a permanent part of the National Army Museum in London.

Missy, a tabby from Newcastle, has something of a medical bent. When she sensed there was something amiss with her owner – if cats can ever said to be “owned” – Missy alerted her by refusing to stop pawing at her chest. Angela Tinning says it first happened in 2013. “Her behaviour was so unusual I got checked out and it was found I had pre-cancerous cells. Three years later it happened again. “I felt fine and I honestly don’t think I would have bothered if she hadn’t drawn my attention to it. If it weren’t for her, my story could be very different today. “She is my little hero.”

Read Cats to the rescue: When felines turn hero

A fast acting feline who alerted her owners to a house fire has been named Cat of the Year by an animal charity. Tink jumped on top of Claire Hopkinson who was asleep in bed when an electrical fault sparked a fire at a neighbouring property in Shrewsbury. Her family managed to get out of the house safely but Tink was overcome by the smoke and had to be revived by firefighters using a tiny oxygen mask. “Without Tink we wouldn’t be here today,” said Mrs Hopkinson.

Fire rescue Tink named Cat of the Year

Drogon alerts his human to boring passages in her drafts by falling asleep on the page.

Saffy does a quadruple-take whenever she encounters a hackneyed phrase in her human’s notebooks. And in 2003, she alerted us when the building next door was on fire.