Pet moggy BP is going on sale - for £135,000.

And owner David Grouse is tempting the purr-fect new owner with the free gift of his four-bedroomed converted farmhouse in Stillington.

BP, or Beautiful Puss, is on the lookout for new owners after Mr Grouse, marketing manager at York Racecourse, was offered a new job in Soto Grande, Spain.

He will be working for Victor Chandler International from a base in Gibraltar. His family need to move by the end of August, but feel 16- year-old BP would be happier staying on her old stamping ground.

He said: " Spain isn't the ideal place for a fur-covered creature, and I know BP would miss the big garden that she has been prowling around for the past three years.

"But BP has been a very important part in our lives and it is extremely important that we find her a home where she will be happy."

He is now offering BP for sale, advertising her and her home in the Evening Press from tomorrow.

David and his wife, who have a six-year-old daughter, Lily, and a two-year-old son, Matthew, hold BP responsible for their meeting 10 years ago.

When they met at a party in London it turned out they had BP in common. The cat, owned by David, had belonged to a friend of his wife as a kitten.

And now for them finding a suitable owner for her is more important than for the house.

"BP brought us together, but the house didn't," said Mr Grouse.

"We feel that it is vital to us to secure her future and we know she is so happy here."

Now prospective buyers are being quizzed with a special set of cat-loving tests devised by the Grouse family.

And BP will have the last say. The bidder she shows most affection for will win the free house.

Mr Grouse said: "I haven't consulted anybody on this but, because the new owners will be buying the cat and getting the house for free, they may not have to pay stamp duty on it."

A spokesman for the Inland Revenue said: "I would have to look into this, but I think it is unlikely."

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