Marmaduke the skunk is on a diet after escaping from his home in Chippenham and living off cat food that piled on the pounds.

One-year-old Marmaduke got out of his home in Ashe Crescent when his owner Kate Howard, 40, went to a music festival.

He found his way into Mark Pembury’s home in Greenway Lane via the cat flap – and had a feast.

Ms Howard said: “When I realised he had escaped my heart sank and I felt like I had lost a child.

“I quickly assembled a search party and luckily, at the second house we knocked, the man said he had taken him to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.”