A HAYES End family who took an abandoned kitten into their home to hand-rear were shocked to discover it was a fox.

They found the orphaned animal in their garden when it was just days old, lying next to a dead littermate and with part of the umbilical cord still attached.

When they learned from Goddard Veterinary Group that their new pet was actually wild, the young vixen was passed to volunteer fox specialist Patsy Taylor to be hand-reared in her Richmond home.

Miss Taylor, who has named the fox cub Gracie, said: “She’s doing very well, feeding well and her colour is just beginning to change.”

Gracie will be transferred to an outside pen with other cubs in June before leaving the nest forever in August with a partner to find a winter shelter.

Miss Taylor, 54, has brought up hundreds of cubs over the past 13 years, and also nursed injured or mangy animals back to health.

“I have loved foxes from a child," she said. "They are so beautiful and so intelligent but get a bad reputation."

Vet nurse Hazel Lee said: "Generally our advice is not to approach them and to leave well alone. Their mother may well be close by and could be scared off by humans.

"Obviously if you see an animal which is clearly injured or in distress, the best thing to do is to call us or the RSPCA for advice."