mother ran away and it is my fault

Seems as though I did not latch the cage door completely (it was a tricky one) and the mother cat took off. She hung around and I TRIED using her babies to trick her into going inside a crate. She heard them calling her and she called back but she wouldn't come near...

She was friendly and all in her previous home but since she doesn't know me she won't willingly come up to me. Now I have these four 2-3 week old babies to feed. Some of them do alright lapping up mushy dry food soaked in water. One latches onto the bottle pretty well, but the other just doesn't want anything to do with any of this.

I feel so bad! I have the trap set out with a fresh can of wet food and a towel over the trap but I am not hopeful that she will come. It is too cold to leave her babies outside as bait. She saw where I went and where her babies went to, but since she has never been in or to my house or surrounding area, I don't think she will know to come looking for them. I don't even know where she might be hiding, considering she doesn't know the area.

I was thinking too that bottle babies are such a pain and luckily I have the mother to do all the work, and not 10 minutes after thinking that, she is gone.

OMG!!! You have to do whatever it takes to bring her back to her litter, Jen! I'm so sorry this has happened!

If there's anything we can do to help...just ask!

Oh my, hopefully the mothering instincts will be strong enough to bring her back

I would just leave open cans of wet food around, ask your neighbors if they have seen her, and if a few days pass then put some pictures of her up around the neighborhood.

How awful!

I truly hope you can manage to trap her or lure her back to the kittens somehow. Those poor little things. I am sure you will do everything you can for them though if you can't find the mama. Please keep us posted.

It really, really isn't your fault. Many cats can open latches, and you said yourself this one was tricky... if you left it just a bit open, a clever paw could've got to it pretty easily. I know re-trapping isn't all that easy, but it CAN be done, right? So let's hope she takes the bait... it's cold yet, and there isn't too much natural food for her to hunt, so she's got to come to you sooner or later. At least the kits are a couple of weeks old--that puts them mostly out of danger; they've gotten their colostrum already, and put on a bit of weight.

Come on, momcat--your kittens need you!

The kittens just went to a wonderful foster home for now. Someone who doesn't work and is home all day to care for them. She has done this before and was just so delighted to have a litter to care for and bottle feed and everything.

I still have a trap out, I am leaving food out as well, especially at night. I haven't seen momma since she took off. Well she hung around for about 2 hours and then disappeared. Funny thing is that she is solid orange and there are fliers up all OVER the place here for a lost orange male cat. I am going to give them a call and tell them that if someone finds a female to call me and then if I trap a male I will call them.

just checking in........well its a shame the moma didnt come back but at least you have the kittens fostered and cared for

good luck for getting moma