A COWARDLY cat amazed its owner by using his quick-thinking to avert a fire.

When Jennifer Phillips accidentally left a pot of potatoes boiling on the kitchen stove while she went out for the day, her trusted ginger tom, Toulouse, did not paws for thought and alerted her sleeping son to the smoke-filled house – which was a whisker away from disaster.

Mrs Phillips, of Winchester Road, Highams Park, told the Guardian she was “amazed” at the courage displayed by her timid moggie, who is afraid of loud noises and mice.

“He is such a softy. He is terrified of mice, and we had a kitten and Toulouse ran for his life. He is a coward in every sense, but I suppose because he is a coward he called for help,” she said.

In an ironic twist, the 58-year-old child-minder had taken two children to visit a fire station open day in Poplar, to ride on the fire engines and learn about fire safety.

She recalled: “Meanwhile, the potatoes were smouldering while my son Richard, 25, was asleep. Although the alarm went off he would sleep through an earthquake.

“Toulouse started to pace around and because everyone was out he went upstairs to wake Richard up, who came out to find a smoke-filled kitchen.

“It smelt terrible for days. But there was only damage to the saucepan. Toulouse saved the day.”

The mother-of-four said she believed Toulouse responded to the smoke alarm because he always took part in fire drills which she carried out once a month with the children.

“As a registered child-minder I have to have regular fire drills, where I set the the alarm off and Toulouse goes to the front door and joins in with the children waiting in the designated area until someone fetches him.”

She added: “I was so relieved. In the 21 years I have been child-minding I have never have done anything like this. Richard thinks it wouldn’t have caught light but there could have been enough smoke to do someone a mischief. Years ago a neighbour left a pan on and the house was full of smoke and it killed the two dogs.”

Her brave feline friend, aged 13, was rewarded with a well-deserved supper of sardines.