When Maddison Broad heard a faint cry coming from her garden she was determined to find out what it was.

The seven-year-old enlisted the help of her parents but initial searches proved fruitless. But she refused to give up and hours later discovered two newborn kittens close to death.

Maddison, who wants to be a vet, was on her trampoline at home in Hancock Close, Strood, when she said heard the noises.

Her father Richard said: “She came running in to tell me and my wife Sharon, so we went out to help her look.

“Sharon couldn’t hear anything and I thought I heard something but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. After about an hour we gave up and came in for dinner. Maddison was convinced something needed help and was determined to keep looking.”

The Temple Mill primary pupil checked every inch of the garden until 8.30pm when she finally discovered two kittens in a small gap behind the shed.

Richard, a plastics engineer, added: “They were only hours old, making tiny crying and squeaking sounds and still had umbilical cords. They were absolutely covered in blood and had ants crawling all over them.”

Maddison immediately cried out for her parents, and told them to bring towels. “She was so organised, she said to me ‘daddy, call the RSPCA, put the towels in the microwave and get them hot, we need to warm the kittens up’. She put me to shame, truthfully.”

"I was meant to find them. They needed me..." - Maddison Broad

The family took the cats to the PDSA pet hospital in Gillingham Business Park, where they were cleaned and warmed up.

Richard said: “They gave us some milk and told us to feed them every hour. When we got home the RSPCA arrived and showed Maddison how to feed them.”

According to the charity, if the kittens had been left an hour longer, they would not have survived.

Richard, 43, said: “We wouldn’t normally let Maddison stay up so late but she really wanted to help. She offered to sit up with them all night but they need such constant care the RSPCA recommended they take them to be reared by a surrogate mother.”

The family will be adopting them once they are independent, at six weeks old. Richard said: “I’m really proud of Maddison.

“She was upset to see them go, but she knows they are better off there at the moment. She just wouldn’t give up. She’s a very intelligent little one – seven going on 17.”

The RSPCA said it was likely the mother cat had a number of other kittens which she took with her, much stronger than the two Maddison found abandoned.

Maddison said: “I was meant to find them. They needed me.”

The family recently lost their Staffordshire bull terrier of 14 years and are looking forward to welcoming the new additions. They have not picked names for the kittens yet.