Hello! I recently found this forum and have spent hours reading the posts. I thought I’d share my story.
As of tomorrow, it will be two weeks that I was able to successfully trap Mama Kitty (aka Greta) and now-12-week old Wally. She is definitely feral rather than stray, and she had made a sometime-home out of my attic. I first noticed her on my roof in November. And I might catch a glimpse of her if I were lucky for the next couple of months. I set a warm insulated box home outside for her in the cold months, but it sat empty. I started feeding her regularly in January. She remained elusive but food was disappearing in the early evening hours (too late in the evening and the possums would finish things off).
Fast forward to the end of March/beginning of April and I spied her carrying a kitten from my roof over to the neighbor’s backyard shed. I counted 4 kittens. She brought them back to my house/roof/attic when they were about 4 weeks old and pretty soon they were climbing the holly bush or the crepe myrtle tree themselves to get on the roof (I tried not to spy on them or Mama would run off but it gave me a heart attack seeing those toddlers climbing like that). I thought I’d befriend her enough to bring them inside, wait until the kittens were hiding in a place that was accessible and then trap Mama, or wait until they were all coming to the feeding bowls and figure out a trapping plan.
I should mention, I live in the Dallas north suburbs. There are stories of bobcats and coyotes in the area but I thought (naively) that she was doing all the right things to keep the babies safe. I even called the local animal shelter and they weren’t any help.
Mama would keep moving the kittens in the dark of the night about every few days. Sometimes there looked like maybe two of them here and two of them elsewhere. When the kittens were about 6 weeks old, two of the kittens were on the roof/attic and Mama was elsewhere that day with the other two. I heard faint meowing and it continued for a couple of hours. Finally I figured out one of them had fallen into the wall from the attic – a small “triangle” of wall between hall closet and bedroom apparently had no ceiling. I cut a hole in the drywall and got out that baby and named him Wally. I thought I’d keep him but Mama figured out he was inside the house, and so I returned him to her the next morning. I was (reluctantly) going with the Alley Cat advice on keeping the babies with the mama until they were weaned and I was not fully aware of the predator situation. Well, a couple of weeks go by and I conclude that one of the two fuzzy shy kitties was really missing. Then, we have a horrible storm (75 mph winds and trees knocked down in the neighborhood) and she returns that night for food with 3 babies but then after that night I never see the 2nd fuzzy one. We are down to 2 kittens. I decide it’s the time to trap just so long as I have a good guess where the two kittens are. That very night, I’m outside. I spot Wally on the roof and figure Mama might be across the street with the other kitten. It is about 8 pm and it is dusk. Just then a very large bobcat rounds the corner and is looking in the neighbor’s bush. I run across the street, yelling with my arms flailing. Mama cat runs out the bush, bobcat lunging at her. Mama pulls an impressive tumble forward, pivots, and runs across the street to my roof. Bobcat stops short of following her because I’m running at it. He turns around, goes back to the bush, and kills the kitten hiding there and takes off with it. The bobcat was not afraid of me, even with me yelling at it. And it was huge! I kept a constant watch out the window and sure enough, the bobcat comes back at 10 pm and I chase it off but he only runs down the sidewalk about 4 houses. Mama and Wally take off sometime in the evening. I don’t see sign of either of them (and food bowls untouched) for 2 days and then Mama comes for food but without Wally. Then that night Wally shows up around midnight and I spend the evening trying unsuccessfully to trap him. He’s mostly on the roof crying loudly for his mama. He disappears and at 5 am I spot Mama. I go outside to give her a little bit of food as a teaser and I’m about to reset the trap (I had just carried it inside) when I spot a coyote running down my street, at 5 am, while Mama cat quickly runs up the nearest tree! I catch Mama in the trap at 5:30 am but now Wally the baby is at large. Finally I see him return that night at sunset (I had big crocodile tears of joy seeing him alive). And this time I am able to catch him in the trap, reunited with Mama by 9 pm that evening.
I have several cats in my home and I’m a single empty nester with a 3 bedroom house. I have already attained Cat Lady status. I had set up one of the bedrooms for Mama and any kittens. I had them at first in a cat cage but realized that wasn’t going to work so I gave them the bedroom in its entirety. Mama is under the bed by default, including any time I’m in the room. Wally warmed up to me after about 1-2 days of being shy (and probably recovering from the exhaustion and trauma). He has since been to get his shots and dewormer. I thought it would be a slow process to introduce him to the kitty family but he has about the easiest kitten personality I've encountered. He’s new best friends with my two youngest cats (two boys about a year old from the same litter) and he’s doing great.
Meanwhile, Mama/Greta is going to be a slow process but I’m determined to make it happen. I am 90% sure she’s pregnant, and I tried to trap her in the bedroom to take her to the Spay/Neuter Clinic but she’s way too smart to go back in the trap. I’ve decided that if there’s another litter of kittens, then yeah okay I guess that’s what we are doing. I bought two cheap nanny cams (on Amazon, only $22 each and so worth it) to keep an eye on her. She’s sleeping deeply during the day and looks much less anxious. I go in there and lie on the floor and talk to her a couple times each day, though not sure if she likes it or hates it.
This past Thursday morning I was feeling frustrated and defeated as I couldn’t get her in the trap and I had just 90 minutes before time was up to get her trapped and to the clinic in time. I looked out my front door window (it was 7 am), and just then a different bobcat walked slowly right in front of my doorway and maybe 4 feet away from me. It was the sign I needed that she’s my indoor cat and I’m not going to release her back out there no matter what. She’d be a bobcat or coyote snack within days I’m afraid.
So anyway, that’s where I am at. Wally the kitten is completely adjusted and Mama/Greta is taking her time. He was confused by the TV and has decided that chasing my feet under the blanket is loads of fun. Mama is peeing on doggie pee pads rather than using the litter box but at least she’s using pee pads. She’ll hiss at me if I come up on her when she’s sitting in the window sill. But her eyes are softening and I think deep down she understands that I saved her. I’ve let Wally pop in to say hi to Mama but she ignores him for the most part and he’ll just follow me out when I leave.
I called Animal Control the day after the bobcat-kitten snatch incident and they don't do anything about it. I saw just yesterday on Nextdoor that about 4 blocks away a lady stepped out into her fenced back yard with her 5 pound Chihuahua and a bobcat jumped the fence and snatched her little dog right in front of her. It is a real problem here. So, definitely Mama/Greta is an indoor kitty. I guess we may have kittens within a few weeks, and I will get her to the vet to be spayed once I can get her in a cat carrier, which might be a long while. My next task, I suppose, is getting her to use the litter box rather than the doggy pee pad. The bed is covered with an old comforter and topped with a shower curtain and she continues to find refuge under the bed.
As of tomorrow, it will be two weeks that I was able to successfully trap Mama Kitty (aka Greta) and now-12-week old Wally. She is definitely feral rather than stray, and she had made a sometime-home out of my attic. I first noticed her on my roof in November. And I might catch a glimpse of her if I were lucky for the next couple of months. I set a warm insulated box home outside for her in the cold months, but it sat empty. I started feeding her regularly in January. She remained elusive but food was disappearing in the early evening hours (too late in the evening and the possums would finish things off).
Fast forward to the end of March/beginning of April and I spied her carrying a kitten from my roof over to the neighbor’s backyard shed. I counted 4 kittens. She brought them back to my house/roof/attic when they were about 4 weeks old and pretty soon they were climbing the holly bush or the crepe myrtle tree themselves to get on the roof (I tried not to spy on them or Mama would run off but it gave me a heart attack seeing those toddlers climbing like that). I thought I’d befriend her enough to bring them inside, wait until the kittens were hiding in a place that was accessible and then trap Mama, or wait until they were all coming to the feeding bowls and figure out a trapping plan.
I should mention, I live in the Dallas north suburbs. There are stories of bobcats and coyotes in the area but I thought (naively) that she was doing all the right things to keep the babies safe. I even called the local animal shelter and they weren’t any help.
Mama would keep moving the kittens in the dark of the night about every few days. Sometimes there looked like maybe two of them here and two of them elsewhere. When the kittens were about 6 weeks old, two of the kittens were on the roof/attic and Mama was elsewhere that day with the other two. I heard faint meowing and it continued for a couple of hours. Finally I figured out one of them had fallen into the wall from the attic – a small “triangle” of wall between hall closet and bedroom apparently had no ceiling. I cut a hole in the drywall and got out that baby and named him Wally. I thought I’d keep him but Mama figured out he was inside the house, and so I returned him to her the next morning. I was (reluctantly) going with the Alley Cat advice on keeping the babies with the mama until they were weaned and I was not fully aware of the predator situation. Well, a couple of weeks go by and I conclude that one of the two fuzzy shy kitties was really missing. Then, we have a horrible storm (75 mph winds and trees knocked down in the neighborhood) and she returns that night for food with 3 babies but then after that night I never see the 2nd fuzzy one. We are down to 2 kittens. I decide it’s the time to trap just so long as I have a good guess where the two kittens are. That very night, I’m outside. I spot Wally on the roof and figure Mama might be across the street with the other kitten. It is about 8 pm and it is dusk. Just then a very large bobcat rounds the corner and is looking in the neighbor’s bush. I run across the street, yelling with my arms flailing. Mama cat runs out the bush, bobcat lunging at her. Mama pulls an impressive tumble forward, pivots, and runs across the street to my roof. Bobcat stops short of following her because I’m running at it. He turns around, goes back to the bush, and kills the kitten hiding there and takes off with it. The bobcat was not afraid of me, even with me yelling at it. And it was huge! I kept a constant watch out the window and sure enough, the bobcat comes back at 10 pm and I chase it off but he only runs down the sidewalk about 4 houses. Mama and Wally take off sometime in the evening. I don’t see sign of either of them (and food bowls untouched) for 2 days and then Mama comes for food but without Wally. Then that night Wally shows up around midnight and I spend the evening trying unsuccessfully to trap him. He’s mostly on the roof crying loudly for his mama. He disappears and at 5 am I spot Mama. I go outside to give her a little bit of food as a teaser and I’m about to reset the trap (I had just carried it inside) when I spot a coyote running down my street, at 5 am, while Mama cat quickly runs up the nearest tree! I catch Mama in the trap at 5:30 am but now Wally the baby is at large. Finally I see him return that night at sunset (I had big crocodile tears of joy seeing him alive). And this time I am able to catch him in the trap, reunited with Mama by 9 pm that evening.
I have several cats in my home and I’m a single empty nester with a 3 bedroom house. I have already attained Cat Lady status. I had set up one of the bedrooms for Mama and any kittens. I had them at first in a cat cage but realized that wasn’t going to work so I gave them the bedroom in its entirety. Mama is under the bed by default, including any time I’m in the room. Wally warmed up to me after about 1-2 days of being shy (and probably recovering from the exhaustion and trauma). He has since been to get his shots and dewormer. I thought it would be a slow process to introduce him to the kitty family but he has about the easiest kitten personality I've encountered. He’s new best friends with my two youngest cats (two boys about a year old from the same litter) and he’s doing great.
Meanwhile, Mama/Greta is going to be a slow process but I’m determined to make it happen. I am 90% sure she’s pregnant, and I tried to trap her in the bedroom to take her to the Spay/Neuter Clinic but she’s way too smart to go back in the trap. I’ve decided that if there’s another litter of kittens, then yeah okay I guess that’s what we are doing. I bought two cheap nanny cams (on Amazon, only $22 each and so worth it) to keep an eye on her. She’s sleeping deeply during the day and looks much less anxious. I go in there and lie on the floor and talk to her a couple times each day, though not sure if she likes it or hates it.
This past Thursday morning I was feeling frustrated and defeated as I couldn’t get her in the trap and I had just 90 minutes before time was up to get her trapped and to the clinic in time. I looked out my front door window (it was 7 am), and just then a different bobcat walked slowly right in front of my doorway and maybe 4 feet away from me. It was the sign I needed that she’s my indoor cat and I’m not going to release her back out there no matter what. She’d be a bobcat or coyote snack within days I’m afraid.
So anyway, that’s where I am at. Wally the kitten is completely adjusted and Mama/Greta is taking her time. He was confused by the TV and has decided that chasing my feet under the blanket is loads of fun. Mama is peeing on doggie pee pads rather than using the litter box but at least she’s using pee pads. She’ll hiss at me if I come up on her when she’s sitting in the window sill. But her eyes are softening and I think deep down she understands that I saved her. I’ve let Wally pop in to say hi to Mama but she ignores him for the most part and he’ll just follow me out when I leave.
I called Animal Control the day after the bobcat-kitten snatch incident and they don't do anything about it. I saw just yesterday on Nextdoor that about 4 blocks away a lady stepped out into her fenced back yard with her 5 pound Chihuahua and a bobcat jumped the fence and snatched her little dog right in front of her. It is a real problem here. So, definitely Mama/Greta is an indoor kitty. I guess we may have kittens within a few weeks, and I will get her to the vet to be spayed once I can get her in a cat carrier, which might be a long while. My next task, I suppose, is getting her to use the litter box rather than the doggy pee pad. The bed is covered with an old comforter and topped with a shower curtain and she continues to find refuge under the bed.
I'm sure Mama will come around, probably a lot more once she has her next litter. She'll see then how nice it is to have a true home and her own human while nursing and loving her kittens. 
but you did what you could. I have a few nanny cams myself but we mostly use them for the Guinea pigs because the range on them isn’t the greatest. I have half a dozen trail cams for hunting that I use to help spot kittens and feral cats. They can be used like nanny cams but also capture video you can watch later so you don’t have to be on constant “duty”. We have bobcats and coyotes here as well but the biggest danger is eagles and hawks. I’m glad you are able to take the time to help the feral mom cat. Most people only worry about the kittens because they are easy to tame. I’m in a very similar situation but I just can’t bring the mom cat inside. All I can do is try to befriend her in my barn.
