FOSTER was sick of being kept in captivity with Brown and Blair - so he made up his mind to escape.

His break was daring, and catapulted him into the headlines for a full week.

Journalists trailed him everywhere and his picture was plastered across the television screens and front pages,

But, eventually, he fell into his masters' trap and was captured.

He wasn't in trouble when Blair and Brown clapped their beady eyes upon him once again, though.

They were quite pleased to see him - even if they had been known to pick on him once in a while.

Because this was not Foster the Worcester MP who had gone AWOL.

It was Foster the vulture, who lives at Banham Zoo, Norfolk - with his feathered friends Vulgar, Vomit, Vile, Blair and Brown.

The name was not just coincidence, though.

The runaway vulture, whose wingspan is eight feet, was actually named after MP Mike.

His handlers, who are clearly interested in the world of politics, made the decision in satirical homage to Mr Foster.

It turns out they thought it would be highly amusing to name the expert killer, who likes to munch on dead chicks, after one of the Commons' most prominent anti-hunt MPs.

Said Mike: "I must have really made it if they have named a vulture after me.

"Still, if I was a vulture I would prefer to be called Foster than Vomit or Vile.

"And at least he's in good company, with Brown and Blair nearby."

It took staff from the zoo six days to track down Foster, who went on a 100-mile tour of East Anglia.

He was trapped after a three-day stand-off in the garden of a rectory in Suffolk.