The quick brown fox jumped on to my sofa

In fact the animal was so relaxed it had trouble waking up when Ian Young, whose sofa it had commandeered, took its photograph using a flash.

The animal was only persuaded to give up its comfortable spot after being prodded firmly with a rolled-up newspaper.

Mr Young, 77, a retired well driller, had left the back door open as he worked in his garden in Feltham. When he went back indoors he found the fox had got there first.

Mr Young said: "I saw something on the settee and when I went over, this fox was actually asleep. It was unbelieveble. It was like a pet dog, its head was resting on its paws and its eyes were shut.

"I expected him to shoot off like a tornado when I started taking pictures but he lay there quite happily.

"I had to get a paper and hit him up the behind to get him off the settee. I had to shoo him out of the house where he stood trying to come back in again."

Mr Young said the fox even sniffed at the camera during one close-up.

Fox control expert Bruce Lindsay-Smith said the audacious behaviour was not typical of urban foxes, who are usually shy.

"This one's been humanised. It has obviously been brought up as a cub by an animal sanctuary or a rescue centre and associates humans with food and has no fear of them.

"A lot of people in sanctuaries treat foxes like pets, which is the worst thing you can do because they are not selfdependent any more. Foxes are wild animals not tame pets."

There are estimated to be 10 foxes per square kilometre in the capital - 15,000 within the M25.

Mr Lindsay-Smith said he and his colleagues were shooting up to 70 foxes a week - more than double last year.

They also trap dozens a week humanely and release them outside the city.