The other evening, a volunteer at IndyHumane took one of the shelter’s dogs out on his final walk of the day. While she was strolling around the rescue facility with the pup, she saw someone drive up to a nearby dumpster and set a cardboard box down next to it.

Alarm bells started ringing in the volunteer’s head. She walked over to investigate and noticed that the cardboard box had little air holes punched in it. When she looked in the holes, she could faintly make out two cats staring back at her.

The volunteer alerted an IndyHumane staff member about what had happened, and they went back outside together to bring the box into the building. They wanted to get the kitties warm as soon as possible — it was a freezing cold night, and the ground was covered with snow.

“After picking it up, she was like, ‘This feels a lot heavier than two cats,’” Jenna Kaufman, IndyHumane’s marketing and social media manager, told The Dodo.

When the rescuers opened up the box and saw who was inside, they were shocked. There weren’t two cats inside — there were 10 of them.

“That was definitely a first for us,” Kaufman said. “I think the most before that was three cats.”

All 10 cats seemed shellshocked and confused. Even with the box open, they just stayed inside and stared at the shelter staff.

After examining all the cats, the staff determined that there was one mama with three kittens, one mama with two kittens, one adolescent male, one adolescent female and one adult male. Based on how comfortable the cats all were with each other, it seemed like they had come from the same household.

It didn’t take long for the cats to realize they were safe and in good hands. As they started to feel more comfortable, they began to come out of their shells.

“They were instantly purring and super affectionate,” Kaufman said.

IndyHumane decided to name most of the cats after characters from “Friends.” The kittens and their mamas went to foster homes, while the three other cats were made available for adoption. They all are already making great impressions on potential adopters.

Kaufman and the rest of the IndyHumane staff are all grateful that they were able to rescue the kitties just in time. If the box had been dropped off just half an hour later, they might have been stuck outside all night in the cold. But now all 10 cats are safe, cozy and on their way to finding loving forever homes.

“[W]e were able to turn a very stressful, potentially upsetting situation into a great one,” Kaufman said.