Where have they gone? (Cat related!)

[Pc2003]

Totally out of the blue a cat turned up at the yard with 4 kittens about a month ago. The mum cat I have seen before if I’m out riding in the fields so presume she is feral but she has never come to the yard. The kittens are about 10-12 weeks old I reckon so no idea where she had them or where they have been until now. So we have all been feeding them, lovely to have them around and the plan was to get mum tame enough to get her spayed. All going well. Then on Xmas eve, they all disappeared, apart from one kitten who was the runt. No one has seen or heard from them since. They had such a good thing at the yard... why would they just go and why was one left behind?? Do cats do that? 😂 thought they would have stayed where the food was!
No houses etc for miles and miles and no roads

 

[Archangel]

I had almost exactly the same thing. Just before Christmas a ginger cat turned up moved into my stables. I fed him and he came every evening, he even had Christmas presents (!) and seemed to have made himself at home. Then suddenly he was gone.

The weather is a bit milder and drier so maybe that is it and he will be back when it rains or gets cold.

I have no near neighbours either. It is odd. Maybe your cat has come back in season and she is off romancing again.

 

[Dave's Mam]

She'll be off after the boys again. They come back on heat once the kits stop suckling.

 

[Pc2003]

Where are the kittens tho?! Why have they gone too?? Apart from one. Who is now extremely pampered as he is the only one left!!
Wonder why they left him behind. They mustn’t like him very much 😂

 

[exracehorse]

We’ve had many feral cats come and go over the years. Some stay. Some are never seen again. Despite biscuits available. But, the kittens usually hang around once mum won’t let them feed from her.

 

[laura_nash]

This is how we ended up with two cats this year. A feral gave birth to four kittens in a nearby barn, we took a little bit of an interest as they were cute (fed them a couple of times). Then mum left with the two biggest (I saw her with them from the car some distance away from our house a few days later) and the two smaller ones came down to the house starving and we fed them more consistently, they moved into one of our sheds and after a few weeks they became tame enough to take to the vets to get spayed / neutered so we decided to keep them. It seemed a bit odd to me the mum leaving the smallest youngsters, but maybe it is more common than I realized.

 

[Pc2003]

Well more common then than I thought! At least one kitten stayed! I feel quite offended they felt the need to leave! But clearly it happens!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

You could take it as a compliment!

Mum took the hardier ones off to fend for themselves alongside her and left the weaker one where she knew s/he would be looked after.

 

[Archangel]

Did your cat ever turn up?

Mine is back now the snow is here. I haven't seen him but his paw prints are all around the farm. he has been in all the barns, up to the house then off right round one of my fields, all through the snow. It is bitterly cold so he must be tough (although he had stocked up on Sheba and Dreamies on the way).

 

[SlinkyMinxy]

I had a similar thing a few years ago. One of the feral cats from the farm down the road turned up with four kittens. After a couple of weeks, she and one of the kittens disappeared, never to be seen again. i found the other three kittens curled up in my hay barn. They didn't look like they were coping very well without mum so I felt sorry for them and started feeding them, thinking that it was unlikely they would all survive. Needless to say, I now have three very healthy ex-feral cats! They do at least keep the mice and rats at bay so earn their keep. One of them is a bit of a wanderer and will disappear for weeks at a time but he always comes back. He strolled into the yard this afternoon, having not been seen since Tuesday. I've no idea where he goes as we are very rural and not many other houses round here but he obviously found somewhere cosy to shelter from the snow.