Whilst driving along our lane to our house I came across two tiny kittens right in my path. I stopped, put them in a safe and shaded glade under the Olive trees nearby - I couldn't find their mother and thought perhaps she'd taken herself off for a little respite, after all we know how hard work kids can be! Three days later I spotted them again sitting forlornly on a wall and looking very bedraggled. After a thorough search I realised that their mum was nowhere to be found, so feeling that these two little itinerants were in need of a spot of help, I took them home.

What followed was a battle to keep them alive. After looking on Google and talking to friends we established that they were between 2 and 3 weeks old. They were in a very poor state, traumatised at the disappearance of their mum and unable to eat solids or drink milk. One of them had congealed evaporated milk all over his or her face, where some well meaning passer-by had attempted force feeding, giving it an almost clown like quality. The only solution we found was a small syringe filled with warm milk. At first we couldn't even get them to take this and I feared our little guests would lose their fight for life. By now they were very listless, so we prized open their tiny mouths and very carefully dripped the milk down their throats forcing them to swallow or drown.

It's a long time since I got up in the middle of the night to feed a baby – my days as a supportive 20th Century father have long gone, but I now found myself rising in the middle of the night in a frantic attempt to keep these two little bundles alive.

Well two weeks have passed and we have succeeded so far and the twins, as we call them (they are identical), have grown from strength to strength. They've decided I'm their Mother and follow me everywhere whenever possible.

I would like to adopt them permanently but Yianna, being the more pragmatic, rightly points out that as we will not be here in the winter, we would have to leave the twins to fend for themselves.

Too early to make any decisions apart from putting the word out that we have a couple of trainee mouse-catchers who are looking for adoption.

Watch this space for a further update.