Four kittens were saved after they were found malnourished and riddled with fleas and worms at a landfill site.
Workers from a cat welfare charity used kippers to tempt the kittens to safety after staff at Westcombe Waste in Somerton, Somerset, found two other dead kittens.
The three males and one female kitten, aged about five weeks old, were discovered under an 8m (26ft) high pile of wood.
Rebecca Dawson, from Cats Protection, said after two weeks of specialist food, all four have recovered and “love nothing more than playing together and making mischief”.
Vets said the four kittens, named Jack, Jill, Skip and Marley, weighed less than half of what healthy kittens their age should when they were first found.
Ms Dawson, Yeovil branch co-ordinator for the charity, said she “really was not sure Jack would make it”.
“He’d been so brave,” she said, adding that he had acted like a mother to his siblings – and is now a lively, healthy kitten.
Ms Dawson set-up two security cameras and humane traps to allow her to track and catch other cats at the site.
Two pregnant cats and another with a missing paw were found and taken to a vet.
In total, 20 cats were found hiding under the waste by the charity.
