Royal Watch News

Princess Michael of Kent's cat has been found

Aug 10, 2012, 12:01 GMT

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent

Britain's Princess Michael of Kent's cat has been found.

The princess - who is the wife of Queen Elizabeth's cousin Prince Michael - was distraught and had to leave the Olympics team dressage early on Tuesday (07.08.12) to search for her beloved Burmese Ruby, who disappeared on Monday (06.08.12) morning.

However, the royal is ecstatic that her feline friend has been found, trapped behind a panel that had been removed during renovations at Kensington Palace.

A friend told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: 'The princess was hugely relieved. She had been very worried.'

The princess - whose name is Marie-Christine - had been knocking on doors of other Kensington Palace properties, whose residents include Prince William and his wife Catherine, to see if the cat could have been accidentally shut in somewhere.

Ruby has never previously strayed outside of the palace grounds and wears a yellow collar with a telephone number on it at all times.

It has previously been claimed that the princess had an on-going feud with former Kensington Palace resident, the late Princess Diana, about her cats.

Princess Michael used to order stray cats on the estate to be trapped in cages and taken away by the RSPCA - but Diana would sneak out to release the felines before they were taken.

According to Marie-Christine's old housekeeper Julia Dias, Diana even taught her sons Princes William and Harry to shout 'Here come the cat killers' when the RSPCA arrived.

Julia said: 'Of course, the cats were not being killed - they were being taken away to new homes. But the RSPCA men stopped calling because they felt so ashamed.'

The former servant even claimed Diana put a battery-operated cat with a recorded miaow inside one of the cages as a joke.'