A PAIR of cats from Keighley district were driven in style to their new home in Southampton following an online campaign.

Barney and Benny, who had been with a Keighley Cat Care foster carer since June last year, travelled more than 250 miles today (Jan 23) to be with their new owner in Hampshire.

They were driven there by kind-hearted cat lovers, who came forward to complete a relay-style drive between Keighley and Hampshire following a Twitter appeal to find the feline pair a permanent home.

One person drove them to Doncaster, where another took them onto Birmingham, before another volunteer drive them to Oxford. This is where the cats' new owner met them before taking them on the final stage of their long journey to the south coast.

A spokesman for the Keighley Cat Care charity said Barney was about 14 and Benny was also thought to be in his teens.

She said that before the charity took them on, they had been living in a home with many other cats and were in a poor physical condition.

She explained the pair were inseparable, so the charity had not wanted to split them up.

"They do everything together, they are like a couple who've been married for 50 years," she added.

"We have had offers for one of them, but we refused because we wanted to keep them together.

"Once cats get over a certain age it's very difficult to find new homes for them so to be able to have found someone prepared to take Barney and Benny together is amazing.

"They came forward via Twitter – we've re-homed 10 cats directly via our account. The support we've had on Twitter has just been something else.

"We also had volunteers on Twitter come forward to drive Barney and Benny to Southampton. They co-ordinated it all themselves."