Most cats would run a mile from water, but Smudge can't wait for a bracing dip in the pool.

The black and white moggy broke her paw in an accident and vets decided the only way to stop muscle wastage was to introduce her to the delights of the hydrotherapy pool.

Now six-year-old Smudge thinks the three-times-a-week sessions in the 20ft pool are the cat's whiskers.

At first Smudge, who is taken along by owner Carol Fordham, 40, was given a lifejacket and gently guided around the pool at the Seers Croft veterinary surgery in Faygate, near Horsham.

But after a couple of treatments she purrs with delight and voluntarily slips into the water for a leisurely lap of moggy paddle with no buoyancy aid.

Practice manager Lizzie Reynolds said: "Dogs usually feel quite at home in the pool - but certainly not cats. The staggering thing is that Smudge actually enjoys it.

"We thought she might just tolerate it but the enjoyment she gets is plain to see.

"She goes in for 30 seconds at a time, three times a week, and her paw is already much stronger. You could say she has taken to it like a duck to water.

"Hydrotherapy allows her to exercise and build up her muscles without putting any strain on the injured limb."