A cat raised by a lottery outlet owner in northeastern China's Liaoning Province earned 3,351 yuan (US$446) for its owner after it accidentally pawed the lottery machine and bought five tickets.

The cat, a black and white one raised by a lottery outlet owner surnamed Wang in Dalian City, suddenly jumped from Wang's arms onto the keyboard of the lottery machine and started to tread on the keys around 4pm on Sunday, the local New Business reported today.

As the machine was still working at that time, the random input of numbers by the naughty cat was recorded as the feline happened to have stepped on the confirm button—an act that cost Wang 10 yuan for five lottery tickets, the report said.

"I was a little bit angry at the cat at that time for the waste of my money and took it for granted that these tickets would never win," Wang, who adopted the cat two months ago, told the newspaper.

But the cat's unexplained dance on the keyboard did prove worthwhile when the lottery results were revealed Sunday night. All five tickets were winners, with one winning second prize and the others all winning the fifth prize, the report said.

The "money cat" was said to have attracted more customers to the outlet to buy lottery tickets after the story was made public, bringing even more fortune to its master, the report said.

To praise the cat, Wang posted the second prize lottery ticket on the wall of his outlet with two bold Chinese characters on it--- Mao Xuan, or, the cat chose it, the report said.

(Shanghai Daily October 10, 2007)