A box of four baby kittens was found in the woods beside the Clearview Mall Tuesday evening by Jim and Alice Stewart of Center Township. The couple named them Ponderosa, Arby, Wendy and McDonald.

Tuesday evening Alice Stewart and her husband, James, were taking their riding lawn mower to be serviced at Rural King in the Clearview Mall.

Living on nearby Eastview Drive, the pair were traveling along a path to the mall that cuts through the woods when they noticed a box tucked back in the woods, off the beaten path.

Perhaps startled by the sound of the mower, the box was tipped over by its occupants, revealing four small kittens wrapped in a blanket.

Placed so far back in the woods, beyond where the grass is cut, the Stewarts decided the kittens must have been abandoned.

Stewart said they do not want to keep the kittens, so she is planning to contact the Butler County Humane Society. However, she is concerned that the kittens might to too young for the shelter to take.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Thursday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.