A CAT-LOVING collector has turned her home into the purr-fect place for a mad catter's tea party.

Colchester mum Jane McCausland has spent 20 years building a treasure trove of more than 150 teapots, all in the shape of cats!

She openly confesses many of the kitsch kitties that line her living room walls look "disgusting".

But she is so determined to make sure her collection is the cat's whiskers that she can't resist pouring money into it, leaving husband Greg to stew as their home becomes a feline shrine.

"I bought the first one on a day trip to Amsterdam about 20 years ago and it went on from there," said Mrs McCausland, who runs her own advertising agency. "Once you have started, you have to have them whenever you see them.

"Some of them are absolutely disgusting but I buy them all the same."

The mother-of-one is a committed cat-lover, and at one time kept ten at her house in New Road, Stanway.

She still has four, Louis, Gus, Lily and Mac, plus ten chickens and a dog.

Mr McCausland is miffed at having to fight for space with both the real-life cats and cat-crammed display cabinets.

"He moans about the teapots because they're silly," his wife of 25 years admitted.

She is still scouring the internet for further gems to add to her haul, which includes Christmas and wedding teapots, one that is fitted with a clock and another which is just 1ins tall.

They cost between 50p and £50 and date from the 1930s to the present day.

Mrs McCausland felt she had really got the cream when she bagged perhaps her most unusual item - a tuneful teapot that plays the theme from Cats.

"It is more tempting than ever with the internet, because you can bring up lists of all different ones to choose from," she said.

"I don't think I'll ever reach the point where I've got every design of cat teapot in existence, because it is one of those kitsch things and so many of them have been made over the years."