A Gravesend woman claims she has potentially lost out on thousands of pounds after someone took her pedigree cat away to be neutered.

Deborah Allen, 47, said her Bengal cat Ajax was fed each day by a woman who then contacted a charity to have the operation performed.

Ms Allen, of Cobham Street, has been left stunned by the incident and believes it was a deliberate act rather than a misunderstanding.

She has even confronted the person she believes is responsible.

Ms Allen said: "I'm absolutely livid; she had absolutely no right to do what she did.

"You could clearly see this was a well fed cat and not a stray.

"If you feed a cat they will return to that spot each day, every cat owner knows that.

"She fed Ajax and when he returned to that spot, she then called a cat charity from Lewisham, then claimed she couldn't remember the name when I confronted her."

Ms Allen is out of work due to illness and suffers from depression. She said her cats help keep her spirits up.

The mother-of-one said: "Bengals are expensive cats. I could have studded my cat out for more than £1,000 and got about £400 a kitten."

Ms Allen said vets also removed a small portion of his ear, an internationally recognised procedure to notify that a feral cat has been neutered.

She said: "Now Ajax doesn't come back to the house - he stays at the spot he was fed at. I don't see him much. He's not the cat he was."

"Achilles has lost a lot of weight and it's like he is pining. He's also a lot more vocal than he was before."

She has also warned other cat owners to keep an eye on their pets.

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