Rescuing some newborn kittens

This past week was an incredibly busy one at work but to add to the stress and distraction, one of my friends (Brooke) found 4 newborn kittens in an apartment building she's renovating and of course I got involved trying to help. Here's the saga.

The apartment building is completely rundown and basically a cement shell of a building where stray cats have taken over.

On Wednesday, her contractor went in with a team of people to clean it out and begin drilling giant holes and start renovation. He found these 4 newborns (about 1.5-2 weeks old).

They were in a pile of debris they had to move that day. Momma cat had been spotted in the area, so I tried moving the kittens somewhere close but safe and put them in a warm blanket so momma could find them and continue nursing.

They were too young for me to take and try to raise. Hadn't opened eyes or ears yet.

After 1 night alone, I went back with a friend from Hong Kong Alley Cat Watch and there was no sign momma had been back. The can of food we had left for her was untouched and kittens were dehydrated.

Plus after picking up the kittens, we noticed 1 had a huge abcess on his belly where the umbilical cord didn't fall off and another had lost a foot.
We took them to a local vet that gives treatment to HK Alley Cats and we gave them a feeding. Sadly, one kitten died later that day.

But, in the evening, we brought the other 3 back to the apartment in hopes momma would be looking for them since construction was over for at least a few weeks.

Thankfully, out of the darkness, momma appeared and 1 by 1 grabbed 2 of the kittens and carried them off into the empty apartment. She unfortunately left the 3rd and never came back so Michelle took it home and will try to hand raise it. We'll keep an eye on the area and get some spay, neuter release going there and see if we can catch the kittens in a few weeks when they are old enough to survive in foster care.