Tiny Tim a Tidy Kiwi kitty

LITTERBOX: Christine Miller with Tiny Tim, her three-year-old cat who prefers collecting chip and biscuit packets and chocolate wrappers to chasing birds and mice. Tiny Tim brings the litter home and puts it in a pile for his owners to clean up. Picture by Rebecca Grunwell

A ginger cat raised by humans since he was 3½ weeks old has become a furry eco-warrior.

Instead of chasing rats and birds like other pusses, three-year-old Tiny Tim spends his night prowling around the Steed Avenue area of Te Hapara collecting litter and plastic and leaving his finds in a pile for owner Christine Miller to put away.

Christine believes his unique choice of “prey” is down to being hand-reared as a kitten.

“He's about three years old now but we've had him since he was 3½ weeks old and bottle-reared him.

“He never brings any full packets home. They are always empty — chip packets, plastic bags, chocolate bar wrappers and whatnot.

“He brings them right inside and leaves them in the hallway or in the lounge.

“For a while it happened every day. He eased off during Covid for a couple of months but he was back at it last night.”

Christine said Tiny Tim's mother died when hit by a car and she suspects his siblings were killed by a tomcat before he was found and taken to Animates.

“He was passed on to me. We raised him and because of that he has no cat traits at all, he thinks he's human.

“He's delightful.”