A couple of animal lovers came to the rescue of five kittens Thursday after the tiny felines were abandoned on the Broad Mountain in Nesquehoning.

A sixth kitten was spotted and rescued by a couple on their way home from church three days later.The first couple, a husband and wife from Jim Thorpe, didn't want their names used, but the wife was willing to share her story, which began Wednesday as she was traveling over the Broad Mountain on Route 93 around 10:30 p.m. on her way to work.Keeping her eyes peeled for deer, she noticed something small on the shoulder of the road."I see so many animals on that road. I didn't know for sure if it was a kitten. It surely looked like the silhouette of a kitten."She scanned the area on her way home in the morning, but didn't see anything. However, when she and her husband traveled that way a few hours later, she saw a kitten walking along the tree line at the second parking area atop the mountain."We turned around and came back, and as we were coaxing this one out of the grass, another one came walking toward us. Then my husband said, 'Look at this!' "On a small, dark brown blanket, just beyond where they'd captured the first two kittens, there were three more, only these were much younger. They looked to see if there were more, and finding none, loaded the kittens into their van, and took them to the Carbon County Friends of Animal in Jim Thorpe. The shelter was full and had to turn them away."I fed the two older ones," said the woman, who has a cat of her own. "They were starving. They ate everything. I knew the other three would need bottle feeding."That's when she thought of Denise Sebelin, a founding member of the CCFOA and owner of Deezines Flowers and Gifts in Jim Thorpe, and called her."I know they foster cats, and they certainly needed care, even the two older ones."Sebelin asked them to return to the shelter and pick up formula for the youngest three, and a carrier, and then bring them to her shop.Abandoned, but friendly"They're not wild," Sebelin said of the five kittens. "They're very friendly, clean, in good condition. They definitely have been in contact with people."Although the woman saw the first kitten Wednesday night, Sebelin doesn't think they could have been there for very long, given their overall appearance.She estimates the two older kittens at about 7 to 8 weeks and the three younger ones at around 3 or 4 weeks old. The older two each have something wrong with their right eye, which will be checked by a veterinarian.In the meantime, Sebelin is caring for the kittens, which includes bottle feeding the three youngest every two to three hours. She also needs to massage their bellies to help them urinate since they're too young to go on their own.When the kittens are old enough, they will be moved to the shelter. They'll be vaccinated when they reach 2 pounds, and will be available for adoption when they reach 8 or 9 weeks of age. If they are there much longer than that, they will be spayed and neutered when they are old enough. If they're adopted sooner, the shelter offers adopting pet owners a low-cost spay/neuter program.While it's clear the kittens are from two different litters, Sebelin believes they were abandoned by the same person."What are the chances of somebody dropping kittens off in the same place on the same day?"After getting the kittens settled, Sebelin took a ride up the Broad Mountain to see if there were more kittens or if the mother cats might be there, but came up empty."It's a really bad place to leave anything," she said. "I just thank God these people saw them."And then there were sixOne kitten, it turned out, escaped notice.On Sunday, Kara Geffert and her boyfriend, Morgan Salter, both of Nesquehoning, were driving on Route 93 on their way home from church."I was just looking out the window and I saw a huge bird. Then I saw something moving in the grass a few feet behind the bird," says Geffert. "I saw (the kitten) peeking out of the grass. We turned around quickly and scared the bird off."Geffert said if it wasn't for the bird, she wouldn't have noticed the kitten, which is likely from the younger litter. Geffert said she didn't know any kittens had been found a couple of days earlier and only learned of them after posting about her find on the Carbon County Online Animals & Supplies Facebook page Monday evening."It makes me sick thinking about it and how long she was there," said Geffert, who has decided to keep the kitten she found.As for the Jim Thorpe couple, they were also relieved that they were able to save the kittens."Our nerves were such a wreck," the wife said. "How could somebody leave these little things there? I'm surprised they didn't go out in the road or anything. I can't believe someone would leave those poor little babies to fend for themselves, or be attacked by another animal or hit by a car. My husband says he feels so good that we did what we did for them, and says he'd do it again in a heartbeat."I want to commend Denise and her crew for all the help they have done in the past and the present for all the homeless cats in the area. I knew she was the right person to call in this situation, and I'm glad I did."If you'd like to make a donation to help pay for the care of the abandoned kittens, you can send it to Carbon County Friends of Animals, 77 W. 13th St., Jim Thorpe, PA 18229.