Boxes and bin-loads of cats and kittens greeted staff at a cat welfare charity, who arrived to find the animals dumped on their doorstep.

The staff at Yorkshire Cat Rescue found the three adult cats and ten kittens outside their base in Cross Roads, Keighley – along with a note of apology from the person who left them there.

The note explained that the owner had started with one cat, but as she was not neutered this multiplied to 13 animals, leaving them unable to cope.

Sam Davis, Yorkshire Cat Rescue centre manager, said: “After allowing the cats some time to recover we began examining them to try to identify which kittens belonged to which cat.

“Some of the kittens are very underweight and will need a lot of TLC. The adult cats are in good shape but stressed and upset.”

Charity founder, Sara Atkinson, said: “These cats and kittens are now safe, but we had to make urgent room for what is a huge number of unexpected new arrivals. There is no excuse for dumping cats outside in this manner – especially not mothers with young kittens."