Regan Burns, of Fairfield, said she was walking in Bethunes Gully on February 5 and found five kittens on a tree branch.
She enticed the ''hungry and shy'' kittens from the tree with food to take them to Otago SPCA. As the shelter was closed, she took the tame and toilet-trained kittens home.
''They were just so cute. They cleaned each other, they curled up and slept together.''
The next day, she took the kittens to Saddle Hill Vet in Mosgiel. Saddle Hill Vet senior nurse Anne Cook said the 9-week-old kittens included ''four ginger brothers and a tabby torty [tortoiseshell kitten] female.''
It had taken five days for the ''starving'' kittens to completely relax and behave like normal kittens, she said.` All the kittens passed health checks and had been vaccinated, flead and wormed.
By Monday, four kittens had been adopted to homes in Mosgiel, East Taieri, Dunedin and Christchurch.
The ''most shy'' kitten - a ginger tom with a white chest - was still to be adopted.
