This fluffy moggie may look very cute, but his monster appetite is starving his pals and leaving his owners bewildered.

Popsy weighs in at a massive stone and a half - 8.6 kilos - and his vet says he's never seen a cat so big in all his working life.

Owners Sophie and Steven Braithwaite, who live off Stockton Lane, York, have had to fit an extra-large cat flap to their home and now say that Popsy barely fits through that. The pair inherited the tortoiseshell and white cat eight years ago and he has gradually got fatter over the years.

They also have two trim-figured cats, Timmy and Sooty.

Meal times can be difficult in the Braithwaite house. Sophie puts three bowls of cat meat and biscuits out for the cats, but the other two stand aside until Popsy has had his fill.

Sophie added: "He always tries to eat my food and if we have visitors he often gets on to their chair and helps himself.

"The vet has said before that he needs to go on a diet, but now we've just had to come to the conclusion that he loves his food.

"His main aim in life is to eat. He would eat all the food in the house given half the chance.

"But he's a very loveable fat cat!"

Updated: 11:20 Thursday, April 26, 2001