Celia the Olympic cat catcher

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However, she has been repeatedly outwitted by the 187th cat, which she fears will be buried beneath the rubble.

The Sixties supermodel only has until Thursday to catch the tom, nicknamed Blackjack. After that she must leave the 800-acre site for good.

Miss Hammond has been trying to trap Blackjack since July when she was called in by the London Development Agency to deal with a litter of kittens in a former industrial unit on the 2012 site.

It quickly became clear that the derelict land had been taken over by colonies of stray cats, with dozens living in a former salmon curer's and others behind a Chinese supermarket where they ate rotting prawn crackers.

Most were fairly easy to trap but Blackjack repeatedly slipped away.

She has spent large sums trying to snare him and relies on a network of informers, mostly security guards, for intelligence on his movements.

But by the time she arrives at the scene, like TS Eliot's mysterious Macavity, Blackjack has always vanished.

Miss Hammond said: "Time is running out. I have a horrible feeling this one's going to beat me.

"Everyone says I should leave it. But of all the cats I have saved, the one I remember is the one I can't catch. If only I could convey to him that I'm trying to help him."

The celebrated model, who stopped wearing fur in the Sixties because of her growing concerns about cruelty, set up an animal welfare charity in

1986. She has always been a cat lover and has 40 years' experience of trapping strays, often sitting up all night in her van watching a baited cage. She has managed to rehome three-quarters of the cats rescued from the Olympic Park, after publicity in the Standard.

A month after she was invited into the Olympic Park by the LDA, the site was handed over to the Olympic Delivery Authority and she was ordered to leave.

But Miss Hammond would not be beaten. She mounted a campaign to be allowed to return and thousands of people signed a petition supporting her.

The ODA relented and gave her eight months to complete her task.