SASSY used to be the cat who got the cream...and the tuna, and the chicken, and the cat food.

Her weight soared to a hefty 7kg - just over a stone. Owner Sue Ball, of Brynmawr, thinks that Sassy, who hates exercise, may be one of the heaviest cats in the area.

As a result, the four year old has become the Rik Waller of the feline world, being put on her own Fit Club-type programme to lose pounds.

So there may soon be a new slimline Sassy after the vet has put the podgy puss on a special diet.

When Sue took in the former stray just seven months ago, the animal was thin and scrawny.

But after being well fed at her new home, Sassy has piled on the pounds. "She was always absolutely starving when we first got her and she would eat everyone else's food," says Sue, of Abertillery Road.

"She was so thin and she just couldn't get enough! She would always finish off her kitten Chewbee's food as well.

"And Sassy doesn't get any exercise as she hates going out. She is a real house cat - she just wants to be indoors."

She added: "I can't really say when she started to get fat - she just suddenly appeared to be large and I was worried that she might have a growth."

So Sassy was taken to a vet, where the diagnosis was not so serious - simply an insatiable appetite that needed to be curbed.

She was put on a weight-loss diet and is now allowed just two meals a day of a special prescription food for cats.

"We have to put her outside when we are feeding the kitten - you can hear her meowing outside to be let in," says Sue.

Now Sassy, a long-haired tortoiseshell, is to be weighed every two weeks at the vet's surgery to keep a check on her weight.

"She is an adorable cat and really healthy in other ways - she is in perfect condition with good teeth and glossy eyes."

Sue and husband Robert took in Sassy and her kitten after their former cat Smudge died of a form of feline leukaemia last May.

""I was desperate to get another cat and Sassy looks exactly like her. She is wonderful," Sue added.