A Scottish couple have spent more than £20,000 flying wild cats from Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey to the UK.

Laura and John Watson, from Viewpark, don't drink or smoke. This, Laura says, leaves them money for their international animal rescue missions.

The 59-year-old rape crisis support worker "always loved animals" but didn't grow up with pets."

When the couple were on holiday in Hurghada, Egypt for John's birthday in 2009, "the place was crawling with cats," Laura said, "and there was a wee kitten chasing us, which jumped into John's lap."

"We stroked it the whole night, ended up with it in the hotel room and we fed it. But even then, we never thought about rescue or how we could do that."

When the couple returned to their home just outside Glasgow, they took in a kitten that was being terrorised by a big alsatian dog.

The former nurse explained: "We bought a cat carrier on the way and we ended up with our first cat, Habibbi. Habibbi is used in Egypt to mean my sweetheart or my darling. From then we got the bug for it."

The couple adopted four cats from across Scotland, spending £2,000 to do so.

In 2015, the couple took a trip to Marmaris, Turkey and "we found Diamaris, who was in a terrible state. He was covered in bites and abscesses, his fur was missing, blood everywhere."

"The vet told us to put him back in the area we found him and John said, we'll never see him again. But that night, we go out to feed the cats and he was waiting for us. John said, Laura, we need to see if we can get him home. I'm thinking to myself, don't be bloody stupid. But we managed it."

"We had to plan the journey which was Fethiye, where he was being fostered, to Dalaman by car, then Dalaman to Istanbul by car, then Istanbul to Brussels by air."

"The foster flew with him to Brussels, then drove from Brussels through the Eurotunnel up to Birmingham and I went down by train and picked him up. We travelled first class back to Glasgow! Diamaris never made a sound the whole journey."

"After Demaris, we knew that we could do that, we'd done a private rescue. It was just certain individuals and we just put it together and paid for it on our own."

The cat-loving couple have spent almost £30,000 on what Laura calls their "hobby", splashing £20,000 on flying 10 cats from Cyprus, one from Egypt and one from Turkey. Costs included renovating their garden so that sensitive kitten Marzouq "could be kept from being Mr Houdini" and running away, Laura said. They rescued four cats from Scotland costing a total of £2,000, and have donated £5,000 to local and international rescues."

"And the bill for food is astronomical," Laura adds, "but I'm so lucky, John has the same values as myself. We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't go out much - I'd rather be with my animals. And that's what I want to spend my money on."

The couple take yearly trips to Cyprus to repair shelters, take part in ‘trap, neuter and return' operations, and feed the cats.

Laura said: "People say, ‘why do you rescue from abroad?'. I could go through Glasgow for miles and miles and never see a stray cat, walk through London and maybe see two or three. But you walk through Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, you walk five minutes and see 20 cats in a terrible state."

"Every time we go on holiday, we take one little suitcase for us and the other two suitcases we take provisions for the cats and dogs."

"John last week found number 15. We have a little kitten in foster at the moment, a little girl. We've never had a girl. And I've got a wee fox I feed every night, I've been feeding him for four years."