CAT THAT GOT THE CREAMY BIRTHDAY CAKE

karen Buczynski, 37, works in retail and lives in lancaster with her children, kyle, 18, liam, 16, and yasmin, 12. they have a one-yearold cat called Gizmo. karen says: GIZMO adores all kinds of food, so when I finished making my son Liam’s 16th birthday cake last year, I made sure I shut the door to the kitchen so she couldn’t get to it.

But when I walked in a few minutes later, there she was, on the counter with her face in the middle of it, chomping away. When she heard me come in, she looked up so innocently, as if to say ‘not guilty’, but her chocolate-covered nose and crumbs in her whiskers told another story. I could have cried — it had taken me hours to make that cake and I just couldn’t work out how she’d got in.

I was sure I’d closed the door, but convinced myself I must have been mistaken. Then a couple of days later, I saw her leaping up at the handle on the living room door and realised exactly what had happened.

She jumps up and grabs the handle with her paws, pulling it down and hanging on to it until the door has opened a fraction. Then she jumps down and puts her paw under the door, gently prising it open.

To get to Liam’s cake, she’d opened both the living room and kitchen doors. I should have realised Gizmo wasn’t a normal cat from the moment I got her. She was three months old when she came to us and, within days, we found her sleeping on top of the curtain pole in my sons’ room as if it was completely normal.

But it’s her door-opening that has astonished people. Friends think it’s hilarious when we’re sitting chatting and suddenly the door opens and Gizmo walks in to join us. We love it, too, even though we can’t leave any food out or she’ll walk in and grab it.

Luckily, she can’t open the fridge door, because it’s too heavy, so if ever I need to defrost anything I do it in the fridge — not on a worktop where she can get at it!