The cat who jumped off a boat to find his 'forever family'

Eight years ago, a large tabby cat jumped from a houseboat and wandered into a nearby 16th Century manor house, choosing to become the "wonderful resident cat" and becoming a firm favourite with staff and visitors alike.

Horatio decided that day to take up residence at Kelmscott Manor, the former country home of William Morris, best known today for his Victorian-era design work, near Faringdon in west Oxfordshire.

Curator Kathy Haslam says Horatio has found his "forever family" on the site.

"He adopted us and it wasn't until we took him to the vets that we realised he'd come off a boat. The person who owns the boat was very happy for him to come and live with us," she said.

Horatio has lived at the manor house ever since and is so well loved many visitors return to the manor just to see him.

Haslam said it was "difficult to know who's more special" - William Morris or Horatio.

She recalls that the "gentle giant" tabby just turned up one day, having arrived from a boat on the River Thames.

The curator adds Horatio even has his own bank account, which some of the staff pay into to cover some of his expenses such as vets bills.

Once, she explained, Horatio went missing "for the best part of a year" and "reappeared out of nowhere with a scar on his side".

He was then diagnosed with "a very rare condition".

"We didn't know at the time he was given a 50:50 chance of getting through that.

"That was a huge undertaking collectively for all of us with the medication and the treatment that he required," she said.

But Horatio recovered, which Haslam said made "him even more precious to all of us".

"He's been pretty well since - he's quite a big cat, very much the alpha male."

Over the years, Horatio settled in at the manor and gradually learned how to play with the toys brought to him.

He now has four beds in Haslam's office and an afternoon bench.

"He is just a member of our family," she says.

Haslam says that during a major project, which involved dozens of builders, the whole site "was in upheaval for two years" and everybody was concerned about Horatio.

"All the contractors fell in love with him and he coped with it amazingly, it didn't faze him at all.

"His welfare, even during that really disrupted period, was one of their priorities."

Property and estate manager Gavin Williams says he does not mind to be "second in command" to Horatio.

"He has my chair in the office and I go and find another chair to sit on," he said, because that way "it's so much easier for me to be able to get on with all the work I need to be doing."

Williams says Horatio is "always very soft" and what he would call "a gentle giant".

"He's definitely part of the team and he's a chief wellness officer, so he's good for a cuddle and a stroke when you need to go and calm down from the days of stress."

Haslam describes Horatio as "very dog-like" as he walks around the meadow every morning before breakfast and then looks for company for the rest of the day.

She adds that on open days, he "really enjoys" spending time with visitors.

"They say the same thing by the hundred, 'Isn't he lovely? Isn't he big?', and they just adore him as much as he adores them.

"We actually have some visitors who come back specifically to see him again, which is fabulous, so he clearly has his own fan club."