CALLS have been flooding in to an animal shelter caring for four little kittens found abandoned in a cardboard box next to a dustbin in Winchester.

Cat lovers from across the south are desperate to adopt the tiny creatures, which have been named Southern, Daily, Echo and News in honour of our publicity campaign which led to them being found.

Staff at Stubbington Ark, near Fareham, say they will not be ready to be rehomed until they are about nine weeks old - in just over a month's time.

All four - three dark tabbies and one black kitten - are being cared for at the shelter following their discovery in Forder Court, in the St Cross area of Winchester.

The three girls and a boy are believed to be from the same litter as a kitten found crying in distress at the bottom of a rubbish chute half a mile away in Woolford Close, Stanmore.

She was found in a plastic bag full of water and died shortly after being found by window cleaner Graeme Coombes.

All four of her siblings look set to make a full recovery, despite being desperately underweight.

When they are old enough and have recovered from eye infections, they will be rehomed in pairs.

Janie Ratcliff, from Stubbington Ark, said: "We have taken quite a number of calls, but we're advising people to call back. They're just not ready to be rehomed yet."

RSPCA inspectors believe publicity over the shocking death of the first kitten probably led to the culprit abandoning the other four kittens out of panic.

Anyone with information is urged to call the charity's cruelty hotline on 08705 555 999.