Fur flies as bosses boot out Pixie the Asda cat

It has certainly put the cat among the pigeons.

Famed feline Pixie – known as “Asda Cat” because of his frequent visits to the store at The Jewel – has been enjoying celebrity status for several months.

But now it seems the supermarket wants to give the puss the boot owing to complaints from some customers – prompting his fans to boycott the store.

The cat’s owner, Jennifer Loy, 35, who lives at nearby Corbieshot, said: “I could see the problem if he was going in to the store and eating off the fish counter but he generally just hangs about the foyer.”

Asda insists it does not plan to evict the ginger moggy from the grounds of the supermarket, but his days lounging around inside are numbered.

Pixie, who has recently taken to sleeping under a Christmas tree in the store, has been a familiar sight at Asda for more than a year.

Facebook pages set up in his honour have attracted more than 4000 fans.

Andrew Mackie, 55, from Craigmillar, recently contacted Asda to ask if it would help him produce a charity calendar featuring images of the pampered puss.

He claims a store representative told him that not only would Asda not support the calendar, but it planned to “evict” Pixie from the store.

Mr Mackie said: “I’m quite angry about it – I’m only trying to do a favour for the fans of Pixie on the Asda Cat page.

“They are not even happy with the Facebook sites – the guy said they are taking steps to have the Facebook pages taken down.”

Mr Mackie said he will press ahead with the Asda Cat calendar – which would see proceeds from each sale going to animal charities – without the store’s assistance.

News of Pixie’s “eviction” sparked an angry reaction on the Asda Cat Facebook group, with dozens signing a petition pledging to boycott the supermarket until the decision was reversed.

Ms Loy said the reaction had been “absolutely crazy”.

She said: “Asda has got a fair bit of press out of Pixie and there’s a lot of people who go to the store just to see him.

“He does come home each day, but I think it’s just to show face – he gets complete adoration any time he goes to Asda so I don’t blame him for being there all the time.”

Asda stressed there were no plans to evict Pixie from outside the store or to attempt to shut any of his Facebook fan pages.

A spokesman said the cat had begun entering the premises and wandering around the store, leading to a number of customer complaints.

He said: “Pixie the cat is more than welcome to visit outside the store as part of his daily travels.

“We know lots of our customers love to see him, but for the comfort of everybody he needs to stay outside.”