Hatty is taking on title of Britain's oldest cat

Another feline has come forward to claim the title of one of Britain's oldest moggys after Stanley the cat died aged 24 when he used up all his nine lives.

At the age of 21, Hatty, by a whisker, is still in purrfect shape and her owners hope she has a good few years left in her yet.

They reckon the pampered puss is one of the oldest cats in Britain after reading about Stanley the hotel cat from Dunsley Hall in Kinver, who recently died at the grand old age of 24.

Hatty lives at the home of salesman Patrick Guest in Lynwood Avenue, Wall Heath. His sister Fiona Rogers said Hatty, named because of an H-shape marking on the top of her head, had been a part of the family since she was a kitten.

It was Mr Guest who brought the ginger moggy home from a farm and gave her to their mother Beryl who looked after her until her death.

Mrs Rogers, a 52-year-old clinical nurse at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital, said: "We just love her so much, she really is one of the family."

The family say Hatty feasts on fish and chicken.