'I rescued Qatar cats and opened a feline cafe'

"If I hadn't rescued them, they'd all be dead. I'm sure of that."

When Debbie Morgan worked as a nurse in Qatar, she rescued dozens of sick kittens and cats from the blazing heat of the streets, nursing them back to health. Many of them she kept as pets, while others were adopted.

But, after eight years of working in the Arabian state, Mrs Morgan decided to return home to Wolverhampton, where she grew up, but she knew she would not be leaving the 19 cats behind.

"I couldn't leave them there. I wanted something better for them," she said.

After the ordeal of bringing the felines back on six 12-hour flights to the UK, Mrs Morgan knew her cats needed sociability, since they loved people, and she could see them pining for interaction with them.

That's when she and her sister, Marie Morris, decided the best environment for their welfare would be a cafe, which they have appropriately called The Qattery.

They have taken over the former Cafe Royale on Victoria Street in the city centre, and hope to open as soon as they get their cat welfare licence.

Announcements that The Qattery will be opening has delighted many people in Wolverhampton..

On social media, people have asked why the cats were from Qatar when the UK had thousands of stray cats in rescue centres.

Mrs Morgan explained that "they'll never be up for adoption - they're my cats".

"If the cafe closed, they have a home," she added.

The 58-year-old knows how brutal the life in Qatar was for the cats she rescued.

"Qatar can be up to 50C (122F) in temperature on some days. They don't live over there with that heat," she said.

During her time in Qatar, Mrs Morgan rescued kittens from metal bins in the stifling heat, picked up others who had been run over, and even had to perform a risky rescue of a kitten who she saw at the side of a motorway.

Part of the problem, Mrs Morgan said, was expats taking in cats when they moved to Qatar then "abandoning them on the streets" when they leave.

"There were five-month-old kittens left outside. In a way it's worse than them never having had a home," she said.

"They don't know how to live on the streets."

After a litany of different medical tests, vaccines and paperwork, Mrs Morgan brought her 19 cats over to the UK.

"It was quite stressful. You can only bring five cats over in your name at a time," Mrs Morgan said.

"And you can only bring them in through two airports in England - Manchester and Heathrow."

The 58-year-old moved back to Wolverhampton in March, where she built an extension and 20-foot catio - an enclosed outdoor patio designed for cats - on her house of 30 years to look after all of her cats.

While she says they've settled in well, she believes they miss the company of so many people and that a cat cafe will be the environment to suit their needs the most.

Mrs Morgan and her sister soon found the "perfect" venue for them - the former Cafe Royale in the city centre.

The sisters will be keeping the cafe downstairs as a regular cafe, without any cats there, while the upstairs space will be the cat cafe.

"We want to keep the activities that have been running for the community like the autism cafe and open mic nights. That's what attracted us to the place," Mrs Morgan said.

A separate room will also allow the cats to have their own space without customers, which is a requirement of welfare licences.

Mrs Morgan also hopes to host educational sessions to talk to people who are considering getting a kitten what it entails and how best to care for them.

In March, the RSPCA and Cats Protection called for a phasing out of cat cafes, saying it was "almost impossible" to meet the welfare needs of cats in this environment.

Mrs Morgan believes cat welfare in cafes should be taken more seriously and that there needs to be more legislation - as it isn't currently mandatory to license cat cafés.

However, she said: "I agree some of them need looking at, but I think we meet what the RSPCA and Cats Protection are saying.

"We know our cats, I know what my cats want. I think a cat cafe benefits them.

"It's not a business per say, it's for their benefit - for them to have a better life."

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