TWO young kittens have been dumped on Canvey, and a charity has said that it has already seen a surge in the number of cats needing its help.

The black cats were found by a passerby near to Canvey Lake on Wednesday in a cat carrier and were taken to Riverside Vets for a check over.

They will then be cared for by the Rayleigh and Castle Point branch of Cats Protection until a new home is found for them.

Val Self, fosterers coordinator and cat welfare officer at Cats Protection, said: "They are about 10 weeks old and both are black cats - one boy and one girl.

"They were both in not to bad a condition so they must have someone's pets.

"They are at Riverside Vets who do a very good job of looking after them until we have a foster space."

In the last week, the charity has also had two cats left outside a vet practice in Benfleet and a kitten found wandering along a road that they rescued.

The charity relies on fosterers to look after the cats until a new home can be found and it is desperately looking for new people to foster its cats.

Currently, it has 17 cats in the cattery and all its fosterers are full and overflowing.

It usually struggles to find new homes for cats at this time due to the summer holidays and people going abroad, but says this year is proving to be particularly difficult.

Fosterers take a cat into their own home and care for it, building up its trust in humans and working out what home would suit it best.

Val said: "Fostering can be very rewarding.

"It is a really nice thing to do.

"If you have cats and kittens that come off the streets and they are scared and nervous but you can nurse them back to health and help them to trust people again.

"It can be quite heart wrenching when they do find a new home. but you have to think that they have gone to a new home which makes space for another cat that needs help."

If you can foster a cat, even if it is temporary, call Val on 07908571652.

For those who want to adopt call Yvonne Johnston 01268 750831.