A guest with decidedly less fur than the usual inhabitants enjoyed a brief stay at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home’s Kent site.

Staff were surprised when a terrapin was brought in to the Brands Hatch centre.

Rehoming and welfare manager Michelle Bevan said: “We have kennels and we have a cattery but we don’t have any aquariums – so while we welcomed poor homeless Terry for the day, we arranged for DWARF, the Dangerous Wild Animals Rescue Facility in Essex to take him, so we can continue to focus on finding lovely new homes for the 38 cats and 49 dogs currently staying with us.”

Battersea does very occasionally welcome other animals in extreme circumstances.

The London site recently provided temporary shelter for a family of rabbits and has previously housed some chickens.

However, the charity warns it does not have the right accommodation to keep creatures other than cats and dogs for any length of time, so people should research alternative shelters for different animals.

Terry the terrapin had been found lying in the middle of a road in Rochester town centre on Sunday.