A BURNLEY cat has been lapping up the attention after being named one of Britain's naughtiest pets.

Stoops, named after the Burnley housing estate where he was rescued by his owner Sarah Bateman, came third out of 300 entries in a national competition run by online blinds firm Direct Blinds.

The company asked owners to send in their snaps of pets caught in the act of misbehaving with a chance to win a £500 voucher and set of blinds.

And Stoops came within a whisker of winning the contest for his annoying habit of jumping into the fridge and licking the top of the milk bottle.

Sarah, of Whitpark Grove, said: “Every time we open a drawer he’ll jump out. The fridge will mysteriously open and it will be Stoops in the fridge.

“He will pierce the lids of bottles of milk from the milkman to get to the milk.”

A German Shepherd and Keeshond cross called Yodie was voted Britain's naughtiest pet after shredding cushions up.

Four-year-old Stoops lives with Sarah and her other rescue cat Lucky, who is far more well-behaved.

Sarah said: “When I got him he was in a bit of a bad way and everybody said ‘urgh’, because he had fleas and couldn’t even stand up properly because of the way he’d been treated.

“Nobody ever bothered with him because he was just the manky cat with fleas. He had no name.

“I’m just made up that he’s actually won something. He’s my little baby, even though he’s now four, he’s still my baby.”

The mischievous moggy earned his place in the rankings thanks to his habit of opening the fridge door and piercing the tops of milk bottles.

Nic Swift, managing director of Direct Blinds, said: “We had a fantastic response to our search for the naughtiest pet, receiving over 300 amazing entries.

“From ‘Dolly the Doormat Killer’ to ‘Stoops the Fridge Raider’; we were inundated with the naughtiest pets from across the UK, ultimately refining these entries to a Top 10 rogues gallery.

"But when we saw Stoops, we knew we had the found one of the naughtiest."

The Lancashire Telegraph reported last Friday how a cat called Slinky Malinki was hailed a life-saver after tapping on a neighbour's window when his owner Janet Rawlinson collapsed in her home in Cornholme.