£4,000 bill as cat sneaks into house and runs amok

It should have been a first family holiday to savour. But Richard Fowler and his family arrived home after a 10-day Mediterranean break to find a cat had got into their house and caused £4,000 of damage. It is thought the rogue feline sneaked into the property in Armstrong Close, Beverley, while Mr Fowler's mother was there collecting the family's own cat, Chuckles. The much-loved pet was being looked after while Mr Fowler and his wife Joanne were enjoying their first holiday with their 10-week-old daughter Bethany.

The Fowlers had a wonderful time in Menorca. But they returned home to find a scene of devastation. Mr Fowler, 39, said: "It was a great holiday, Bethany was brilliant all the time. But the minute we came home and I got through the front door I saw the mess.I thought at first we'd been burgled so I told Jo to stay outside with Bethany.



"Then I saw a pile of cat mess in the lounge, then a couple more piles. Eventually I realised the scale of it, it was on all the carpets, up the stairs, everywhere. The worst thing of all was Bethany's toys, they'd been on the floor in the nursery and they stank. I saw the cat upstairs under the crib, it just shot out of the house in a black blur. I've no idea whose cat it was." Mr Fowler, a solicitor, believes the cat's only opportunity to gain entry would have been while Chuckles was being collected for his own holiday.

He said: "Luckily, there were cat biscuits and water that we have for Chuckles, or the other cat could have starved." But Mr Fowler's generous nature doesn't stretch to his insurance company, Direct Line. It has refused to pay out on any claim because it treats the incident as "accidental damage", which his policy does not cover. A company spokesman said: "We're certainly sympathetic, but unfortunately Mr Fowler is not covered."