Cats' nightly kitchen raids caught on camera

A family say their lives have become "a daily soap opera" after they discovered a trio of neighbourhood cats have been raiding their kitchen and stealing food.

The Round family, from Bourne, Lincolnshire, installed a camera six months ago to find out which of their pets had ruined their sofa and had been making a mess while they slept.

They said they were "shocked" when the footage revealed three feline intruders helping themselves to food bowls and playing with catnip toys.

Simon Round said: "Our five cats and one dog don't do a very good job of protecting our house."

Round started investigating after noticing their cat and dog food was "being eaten rapidly" and soon uncovered the culprit.

"We thought it was quite funny at the time. We're big animal lovers. We found it amusing to start with but that wore off quite quickly," Round said.

"Every morning, we wake and check our phones to see how many visitors we've had during the night trying to get into the cat flap.

"It is quite entertaining."

Trigger, a black and white moggy, was one of the cats caught on camera. His owners, who live nearby, had reported him missing on Facebook.

He has since been returned home, but he still continues his regular visits to the Round family home.

In a bid to stop the unwanted guests, the family installed a microchip-activated cat flap but said it had failed to make a difference.

"We thought it would resolve everything, initially it did, until we found out cats are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

"They started tailgating our cats when they came in," Round said.

A second black and white cat, who the family named "Felix" was also making nightly visits alongside another cat the family referred to as "Screaming Bob".

They are not sure who the two cats belong to, despite attempts to trace their owners on social media.

Neither cat had been microchipped.

"We don't want to discourage cats, we love them, but we can't simply feed every cat in the neighbourhood unfortunately," Round said.

Daniel Warren-Cummings, a behaviour officer for Cats Protection, said: "Microchipping your cat is a wise precaution if they should become lost and be resorting to visiting other homes to steal food.

He added: "If you wish to deter cats coming into your home, then microchipped cat flaps and putting physical barriers in front of cat flaps also helps to keep your cat safe and worry-free."

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