Joyce Tennant had been on her weekly shop and was looking to purchase 25 sachets of her cat's favourite food, Chicken and Jelly, but upon reaching the till Mrs Tennant was asked to return the items to the shelf

She told the Observer: "I had a knee operation not to long ago and can only make it to the store once a week. My cat will only eat the Tesco Chicken and Jelly cat food, but the manageress told me that the store policy was that you can only purchase ten items at a time.

"I could understand if it was special offers but this is just normal stock, they cost about 20p.

"Apparently there are some notices up in the store saying that you can only buy so much of any item, but I have never seen them.

"She told us that they could order it in for us, so we ordered it for this week and the wrong kind arrived, chicken and gravy rather than chicken and jelly. My cat won't touch it!"

Mrs Tennant told the Buchanie she has tried her cat with everything from expensive brand names to homemade food and Sarosa - who's name means 'freedom' in Gaelic - simply refuses to touch them.

As the Buchanie went to press Mrs Tennant was planning on returning the food to the store but said Sarosa would have to go hungry in the meantime.

A spokesperson for Tesco told the Buchanie: "We have a six item or less policy. Mrs Tennant had 24 items and that is a shelf-full. We can help her out by pre-ordering the items for her."

Feline down: Sarosa and owner Joyce Tennant can't believe the store policy. Picture: Duncan Brown