First he came along to a dinner party my mother gave one summer in Oxford; some time after, there was a friendly picnic on Christ Church meadow along with my mother, my brother and me.

But Canterbury would always be the city of the archbishop and monks of Christ Church.

Osthaus, of Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, said: "This finding is somehow surprising as cats regularly use their PAWS and claws to pull things towards them during play and hunting."