Lucinda, a teenage girl near Melbourne, used her birthday money to take 14 kittens by taxi to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.

One day, Lucinda, 13, was riding her bicycle along the Moonee Ponds Creek track in the rain. Suddenly five kittens appeared on the trail ahead.

Seeing how distressed the kittens looked, Lucinda resolved to take them with her.

"They were so cute. I didn't want to leave them, they looked so tired and lost," she said.