ABANDONED kitten Alfie Moon, who made headlines after being saved by mouth to mouth resuscitation through a pen tube, is to be re-homed.

Staff at Cwmbran animal sanctuary All Creatures Great and Small are over the moon that Alfie, named after Shane Ritchie's EastEnders character, is finally healthy enough to leave their care.

The sanctuary received hundreds of calls from animal lovers offering a home to Alfie after the story of how he was revived by the quick thinking of sanctuary owner Viv Harris was revealed in the Argus earlier this month. The kitten, rejected by its mother, had stopped breathing just after birth.

Ms Harris quickly grabbed a ball-point pen tube and used it to breathe tiny puffs of air into his lungs.

Given 24-hour care by Ms Harris and volunteers at All Creatures, Alfie has survived and grown into a healthy kitten.

A spokeswoman for the sanctuary said: "He was very famous after the Argus story and everyone wanted to help him.

"We even had an e-mail from a woman in West Virginia, USA, who said the story had made it to their local news, which was amazing.

"We had so many calls from people offering him a home it was unbelievable."

Later this month, six-week-old Alfie will be given to a local couple who have adopted cats from All Creatures before.

Although healthy, Alfie is still prone to infection and will still need lots of looking after.

The spokeswoman added: "I was there when he was born and we didn't think he was going to make it.

"But he's doing fine now, in fact he's growing up really fast and he's going to be a big cat when he's fully grown."