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While the Royal Family are animal lovers, a present that Princess Margaret gave to her nephew, King Charles, ended up sparking a lifelong issue.

According to Brian Hoey, a former BBC correspondent and the author of the Princess Royal's official biography, Margaret gave Charles a kitten when he was a child, and he "disliked it on sight". He added in his 2013 book, Pets by Royal Appointment, that the King "cannot bear" to touch cats, saying: "Since then, he has developed an aversion to everything feline and says he cannot even stand having one in the same room."

It is added that King Charles "can detect whether one lives in a house, even if it's absent at the time."

King Charles is more of a dog person, getting a lagotto romagnolo puppy called Snuff last year. Queen Camilla also has two Jack Russells called Bluebell and Moley.

Other royals also own dogs, including the Prince and Princess of Wales with their cocker spaniel, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's beagle and Labrador, and Zara and Mike Tindall's two Labradors and a brindle boxer.

This is no surprise given Queen Elizabeth's fondness for dogs. The late monarch owned more than 30 corgis during her 96-year life. The remaining ones now live with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who also has Norfolk terriers.

Princess Michael of Kent, who is married to the late Queen's first cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, is one of the only cat lovers in the family, being fond of Siamese and Burmese cats in particular.

Former royal Butler Paul Burrell once revealed that the princess's cats used to play outside Kensington Palace, causing a young Prince William and Prince Harry to treat them as "moving targets as they walked along the top of the wall."

The princes had been given BB guns for Christmas and "thought it was great fun" to aim at the cats, but after Princess Diana found out, she "stopped it immediately".