Normally my husband’s morning jog is an uneventful event; just lots of sweat and dirty washing. However one day in October 2009, it took a surprising turn.

Watching him go jogging down our road I was surprised to see him suddenly stop dead in his tracks, crouch down and almost climb into a storm-drain. What an earth is he doing I thought, it’s filthy down there!

His arm then came out of the drain with a plastic bag. He then promptly came back down the road to the house and gave me the plastic bag with the words “now we have a tough decision”!

He wasn’t kidding – inside the bag were three tiny crying kittens only 2 days old, freezing cold, starving and soaking wet. My initial reaction was – they are too tiny, they will never make it, we have to do the merciful thing and put them to sleep. But my husband being a big softy under the tough executive exterior said – no, they want to live, we have to give them a chance. With those words he managed to stop me having a full night’s sleep for 2 weeks.

Our three new babies fought for their lives; normally kitten’s only days old and who have got so cold and wet, really don’t stand much of a chance. However these three were determined to fight. Our spare room turned into a mini clinic with weighing scales, droppers, syringes, bottles, towels, schedules and weight charts. The internet became my best friend; we are now authorities on newly born kitten care courtesy of Google.

The runt of the litter (the black and white), I thought I would lose a thousand times. Why wasn’t he moving? Was he breathing? Had he drunk enough? Another check of the charts and comparison of food intake. Heaven forbid anyone even thought of touching them without spotlessly clean hands.

They slept every night by our bed, I set the alarm clock so I could wake and feed them every two hours throughout the night. Not forgetting you have to make them “pee and poo” after every feed, yes you really do, otherwise they will die, this is the not so nice part of the job. Lots of rubbing of tiny tummies and bottoms is how this is achieved.

My life was on hold for 2 weeks while I nurtured and protected them from germs and disease. Amazingly they grew and grew, these were our miracle kittens, the odds had been stacked so high against them, and by rights they should never have survived. But our three babies were determined and grew stronger and stronger.

Teaching them to lick water for the first time was fun, teaching them how to eat solids was even more amusing. I don’t know who got dirtier, them or me! In nature they would copy mother cat but as she wasn’t around they were clueless what to do for a while. My older cat was having nothing to do with them, so was absolutely no help.

We have now ended up with four cats! Certainly that wasn’t the plan as we move countries way too much, now we will be doing this with our mini zoo.

The cruelty I witnessed whilst living in the Philippines shocked me to the core; the images I will carry with me forever.

Through my art I hope to raise awareness about what is happening in the Philippines and promote CARA - http://www.caraphil.org

Volunteering in animal welfare made my Philippine stay not pleasurable; I could have just shut my eyes and gone to coffee mornings and enjoyed the privilaged lifestyle but sometimes you just have to give back. If everyone turned a blind eye, or couldn’t take the sad sights, where would we be! Plus of course I always have my three miracles to remind me of how their feline friends in the Philippines need my help.