A Scottish wildcat has become a regular visitor to the home of an 84-year-old in Inverness-shire after developing a taste for cat food.

When Mrs Jean Robson of Newtonhill, near Beauly, saw the large, brown, striped creature in her yard on Sunday she dismissed him as simply another stray cat.

She said yesterday: ''Because I live so far out in the country, there is a fence around the garden to stop my cats getting out. I think that he found his way in through a gap. When I first saw him, he was at the back of the garden, and I thought that he was just another cat.

''However, a friend went out to have a closer look and told me that he was no ordinary tabby. I described his markings to a vet, and she told me that he was definitely a Scottish wildcat.''

Mrs Robson, a widow, said that despite the popular image of the wildcat, the visitor seems very tame.

She said: ''I put some cat food in a wheelbarrow so that my dog could not get at it, and he leapt straight in there.

''My friend and I stayed in the house and took photographs of him from the other side of the window. He looked up and saw us, and was totally nonplussed.

''I think he must be used to humans, because he seems so relaxed. He has even been in the house, but I had to shut my cats away, in case they started fighting.''

Her four cats are not enjoying the wildlife drama. ''They haven't eaten since he arrived, and spend all day with their noses up to the windows to see what he's doing.''

Mrs Robson will ask her vet what she should do next. ''I really could not keep him,'' she said. ''I have not named him because I do not think that I had better get too attached.''