Mama cat/kittens and an aggressive male

[TardisDance]

Hello, back in late February, I noticed a small stray/feral cat around my house. She resembles a kitten that I rescued a few winters ago (she screamed bloody murdered to be let in while I was cooking chicken lol). This kitten ultimately was adopted by a family member, so I've had a soft spot for this new cat that's been wandering my yard - I think there could be a family relation somewhere.

Skipping forward to May, my neighbor mentioned that he discovered that this same kitty gave birth to kittens in his barn and had started feeding the kittens as they grew older (I had tried to feed the mama in her pregnancy days but she never came). He offered the kittens to us if he could manage to gain their trust and catch them. Mama had moved her kittens a few times, but I had managed to coax mama to eat at my house and then she would come back to the barn.

Unfortunately in late June/early July, he had a failed attempt to catch the kittens. He managed to most of the kittens by hand but they got free as he was bringing them inside. He said that the kittens would only eat if he's at a large distance since that incident.

Now, a male orange tabby has been coming around. I've seen him a handful of times. I have suspected this may be the daddy cat. My indoor boy (neutered) is absolutely terrified of him. He started trembling when he first seen him through the window. Both my cats (I have a spayed female too) haven’t really been bother by the mama cat except to stare. The orange cat at one point saw me through the living room window and body slammed the window. Then he proceeded to spray along side of the wood.

A few days ago, we woke up at 5:30 am to our boy cat howling and screaming. We saw the orange tabby outside and scared it away. On our security camera, the orange tabby was body slamming himself several times against the living room window with a puffed tale. He scratched a hole through our screen and left scratches all over our siding. Thankfully, our windows our double paned, so there was no way he could get inside. Later in the day, we saw him again terrorizing our male cat. My husband went outside and chased this cat away. He hasn’t been back since.

Obviously, I feel terrible for the orange cat, but I can’t have him scaring our cats and damaging our property. In another life, I would have tried to TNR him, but I really can’t have this cat near the house. I am also worried for the mama cat too and the kittens. She has totally disappeared for the past couple weeks and my neighbor said she’s not coming back for food - I suspect she’s left the area because of the orange tabby.

Is there any chance that the mama and kittens will come back? I’ve been checking Nextdoor, Craigslist, etc. to see if anyone in the neighborhood has managed to catch mama and her kittens.

Just curious if anyone has had similar experiences and what the outcome was? I really want to have hope that mama and kittens will come back. There’s so many dangers in our neck of the woods (coyotes, foxes, hawks, etc.). I was going to take one of the kittens and that family member I mentioned in beginning was going to take 1 or 2. Mama seemed like such a sweet cat albeit afraid of me.

 

[fionasmom]

Mother cats, especially ferals, always have a plan when they move their litter. She did not just run into the wild with the kittens, although figuring out what seems safe to her is the hard part. I do understand that you are in an area that is not safe and is filled with predators.

She may not be that far away. Walk around and look and listen. If you go at night, bring a flashlight as it will reflect off of the cats' eyes if they are out there. Yes, she may come back, especially if you and your neighbor were her source of food.

The orange cat is aggressive, maybe approaching the top percentage for unprovoked aggression, and it is not unheard of for toms to kill kittens. One of my favorite all time male pets actually made an attempt at this, which I thwarted. However, these were newborns who were defenseless, not slightly older kittens. If you do encounter him, be careful, as he sounds as if he is not afraid to go on the offensive.

My avatar was born to a feral mother, under a neighbor's house. One night, as I suspect the mom allowed, the kittens were on the front lawn when a coyote came and grabbed one of them. The mom immediately took the entire litter away...the remaining three kittens. To this day, I do not know where she took them, but as we were her food source, she did return.

Even if you TNR the orange boy immediately, it won't solve the immediate problem as it will take 30 days for the hormones to leave his system....and no guarantee that he might improve that much if he has lived on the streets his whole life.

Please let us know what happens.

 

[TardisDance]

Thanks, I’ll keep looking for the mama and kittens. I've asked one of my other neighbors and she said she's never seen the mama or kittens, but she definitely knows about the orange boy. He went right up to her indoor/outdoor cat and she said never heard her cat growl like that before. At least he didn't attack.

 

[TardisDance]

Update: The mama seems to be back. I put out a bowl of dry food and water. She hung around the woods on the side of our property. She only came close to catch a chipmunk eating seeds under the bird feeder (I guess the dry food wasn’t enticing enough and honestly we have too many chipmunks!). I put out wet food when she came back later and she only would eat once I moved it closer to the woods. I had food & water under my portico at first to keep everything shaded (it’s a heatwave around here).

My male cat was all growls and puffed up his tail - I think he’s just on super high alert since the incident with the orange cat. He’s never minded the mama before. She’s like 6 lbs. bud! LOL (he’s almost 13 lbs). I temporarily put him in another room so he would calm down and leave the mama alone. At least he was sleeping later in the day when she got her wet food meal. My female cat as usual didn’t care.

No signs of the kittens so far, but I’ve only ever had minor glimpses. I’ve alerted my neighbor as he’s out of town and I did see the mama heading toward his driveway. I do wonder if the kittens are in the barn again.

No orange cat since the incident so I’m glad.