Staff at Tenby's Cliffe Norton Hotel were shocked last week to discover a cat and her kittens while they were clearing out part of the sea-front hotel's basement.

The hotel's temporary manager, Philip Rhys-Jones, was moving things out of a disused area of the basement last Wednesday when he discovered the grey cat and six kittens inside an old bed base.

Unfortunately, three of the kittens, who were just hours old, were already dead and a fourth sadly died later.

Staff contacted the RSPCA who were unable to help, so they looked after the cat, who has been named Iggy, and her two surviving kittens, named Cliffe and Norton, over the weekend until they could take them to Tenby Animal Rescue Centre on Monday where they were continuing to thrive this week.

"We guess that Iggy is about two-years-old," said Rescue Centre organiser Mrs. Maureen Ward. "When she was found she was very malnourished. She was just skin and bones which is probably why she lost four of the kittens, she couldn't feed them properly."

Mrs. Ward explained that when she was found, Iggy, who has ginger flecks amid her grey fur, was wearing a lime green/yellow collar with a bell.

"She's obviously got lost from somewhere," said Mrs Ward. "With a cat pregnancy lasting nine weeks, she could have been missing for well over two months and has been surviving by scavaging what she can from dustbins.

"I think it's unlikely she's been deliberately abandoned because, from past experience, the sort of people who do that usually take the collar off first!"

Mrs. Ward said that Iggy was a very friendly cat, although she was naturally very protective of her kittens.

"She won't leave them alone for a second," she said.

"She's eating well and is already starting to put a bit of weight back on - 'though she's costing us a fortune because she'll only eat chicken," she smiled.

"She could have come from anywhere, even in the back of a lorry from away, but we'd be delighted if we can find her owners."

Mrs. Ward said that, if Iggy's owners could not be found, however, she and her kittens would be looked after at the centre until the kittens were weaned.

"After that we'll have her speyed and look for a good home for her and the kittens," she said.

The Rescue Centre can be contacted on (01834) 843712.