Feral Cats Disappeared?

Hi there. I'm new to this site, but not new to cat rescuing! I do have a question though since this is something I've never dealt with before. A few months ago we realized that there was a family of feral cats living under our shed. We fed them and trapped 2 of them (we are working on the others) to spay/neuter. They have been in our yard almost every single day since we first noticed them. They play, climb our trees, eat the food we leave for them, and stare at our cats inside the house.

Yesterday my husband and I noticed that the food from the previous day hadn't been eaten. Then later in the day we saw a hawk sitting on our fence. We live in an area where there are hawks and eagles everywhere but this is the first time I've seen one in my backyard. Our backyard is small with a lot of trees so I was hoping that it was too small and cluttered for a bird of prey to swoop down into it. When we saw the hawk we worried that the cats may have been scared off. Its a small hawk so I'm not convinced that it did anything to the cats, at least not yet. I feel like I would have noticed it before yesterday if it has been around before. Plus, there are a total of 6 cats back there. We scared the hawk off and then left some wet food out right next to the shed, hoping to see if the cats would come out of hiding. Today I went out there and noticed that the wet food hadn't been touched, and thats pretty odd. Usually if we put wet food out there its gone within the hour. The dry food we leave out for them is also still out there.

So would anyone know if the cats have just disappeared? Would they have been scared off by the hawk? We saw them the day before the hawk appeared, so I highly doubt that the hawk did anything to all of them. I hope he didn't bother them at all, but I don't think it would be possible for him to have harmed all 6 of them in just a day. So where are they?? Do feral cats ever leave a location and relocate all together? Or do you think they are just still hiding?

I was so upset when I saw the hawk out there yesterday, but now I'm more upset that I can't find the cats. So would anyone have any theories on where they are?

I live near several eagle nesting sites. While I have never witnessed it, I have heard some of my neighbors talking about feral cats being taken by eagles in their backyard(s). It's probably possible but eagles do not usually come that close to people or their houses.

If the hawk was big enough, it may have frightened the cats, although it seems strange for all of them to have disappeared. Is there a wooded area or other place they could hide?

Have you talked to your neighbors? Maybe one of them saw something.

It would be unusual for the whole colony to up and leave but not unheard of, usually they scout out new locations for a while so you notice them gone for a while during the day but they know there is food so they come back. I have had one or two of mine go missing but never anywhere near 6 at once.

Could a neighbour have accidentally locked them in a shed or something if they were hiding from the crow?

We have these small grey birds of prey here. People mistakenly call them hawks when they're a type of kite - you'll see upwards of a dozen of them together.
It actually made the news because people thought these tiny kites could take off with their dogs, cats, and young children.

While small kittens are at risk from larger birds of prey, cats aren't. Other things like coyotes, dogs, and humans pose more of a threat.

Do you know if anyone else is feeding them? Could someone have done something to them?

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Do you know if anyone else is feeding them? Could someone have done something to them?

Click to expand...

Evil persons arent that uncommon *grr* ... But taking 6 at once, unnoticed, while their providers and rescuers have big difficulties to take one at a time? Nay.

Apparently they went away voluntarily - even if possibly scared away.


Good luck!


Ps. Welcome to the Forums!

I never said take. People still poison coyotes in the US (pretty common though illegal) - plus there's several other chemicals people could easily use. People shoot cats here, too.

The colony I feed at the gas station seems to have a pretty large territory, this is the third year in a row that they have gone missing during the coldest part of the winter. Even so there will usually be one or two that turns up to eat. A day or two gone is nothing to worry about, the unspayed might be going into heat by this time of year, and too busy to eat just now. I hope they turn up, I worry as much about the ferals as I do the ones in my house.

It might have been the hawk.

Any sign of them since you posted this?

No sign of them yet :-(. Thanks for everyone's opinions though. It was definitely a hawk out there and unfortunately, while it might be rare, cats definitely get attacked by hawks and eagles around here. Our vet has cats come in pretty frequently that have been dropped by eagles :-(. I still just think its weird that they all disappeared at the same time. They know there is food in our yard for them, and they had been living under our shed. So they have food and shelter, but they're gone. This is really upsetting me. I guess its possible that a person could have done something to them, but a lot of people in this neighborhood have outdoor cats so it seems like a lot of people around here do like cats.

I don't know the people who live behind us, but we share a fence with them and I've definitely seem the cats hop over the fence to their yard and over the fence back into our yard. I think they have cats in that house too, so maybe its time for me to meet the neighbor and find out if they've just relocated into her yard. However, even if they did, they frequently hopped that fence so I still feel like they would have hopped back over into our yard at some point.

Ugh I don't know. Even if it was the hawk, I seriously doubt he would have harmed all 6 of them. It was a medium sized hawk, so I feel like its not even logical that it could have eaten all of them. I would think one would be enough, but maybe it did scare them all off. I've also thought that maybe someone trapped them all, but that doesnt seem logical either. We've been trying to trap them all and we've only succeeded in getting 2 of them so I can't imagine that all 6 of them would have just walked straight into someone else's trap.

I'll update if I discover anything, and in the meantime, if anyone else has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

We lost six ferals and our own indoor/outdoor former feral cat, Tower, all in one day three years ago. I have never seen any of them ever again, even though I regularly walk every evening.

My neighbors absolutely hate the cats and the fact that I feed them so I always assumed that they were taken. Never could figure out how they got so many in one day though, especially my Tower, but I know that they did something.

Good Luck on finding all of your ferals. Sending prayers and vibes your way!

They aren't off looking for "love" are they?

A lady I work with has a feral tom cat that frequents her property but she hasnt' seen it much lately--her property runs up against some farms. I told her theres a good chance he's been out looking for love.

Leslie

I wish they were off looking for "love"! As much as I don't want the cats to breed, I feel like that would be the ideal answer as to why they are gone. However, 2 of them are spayed, so if they were off looking for love, I don't think those 2 would be. I'd be happier if I saw those 2 and not the other 4 because maybe it would mean they just went into heat, but sadly I don't see as the case.

I'm actually out of town right now but I had my husband look under our shed toady for any evidence of them. Its hard to see completely under it, but he took a flashlight and couldn't find any evidence of them still being there. He said there are small amounts of fur stuck to the side of the hole they enter through, but that could have been there for a while. I'm trying not to panic, but its not working. I'm really worried about them and I hope they just decided to move off on their own.

I did talk to a friend today who told me about a groundhog that lived under their shed. Granted, I know a groundhog isn't a cat, but apparently when she got a dog, the groundhog disappeared and didn't reappear until months later. She thinks the dog scared it off. So while its not exactly the same situation, I'm still hoping that its similar and maybe the hawk just scared them off. Maybe they'll still come back at some point.

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers though. I have some ferals that I've taken inside and socialized, but I never realized I could get this attached to the ones outside that I really don't interact with except for feeding them. I wish I wasn't this attached to them .

You wouldn't be you, if you weren't attached, I guess. Welcome to TCS, and hurray for you for caring for those cats.

Prayers and paws crossed here that they turn up unscathed, but yes, I think you, or your husband, since you aren't there, should go talk to your neighbors, and see if they know anything.

Please do keep us updated.

Still no sign of them . I'm back home now, but yesterday I had my husband go talk to the neighbors. 2 of them had no idea what we were talking about when we asked if they had seen a family of feral cats. The people who live behind us said that they have seen them a lot (they would hop the fence back and forth) but they haven't been feeding them and they don't have a clue as to where they would be.

Today its beautiful and sunny out so I'm hoping that I might see some sign of them. Its been raining and cold for the past week or so and while they would still come out in the rain, they were never out as much as when the sun was out. I should probably just assume that they are gone for good, but I can't help constantly looking outside today to see if there is anyone out there playing in the sun .

I doubt that a hawk could pick up a cat. Eagle yes, but hawk no. I also cared for a feral colony in the country and we had a lot of very large hawks and owls. They never carried off an adult cat. The cats ignored them. There was the occasional kitten that would disappear before we could trap them and rehome them, but I would have guessed other predators first.

I would suspect roaming dogs or coyotes first. We had our own dogs which kept our property well marked, which in turn kept other dogs out of our property. But when the last of those dogs died, the neighborhood dogs would come on our property and we did have a number of cats disappear on us.

Unless the cats felt threatened by something on your property, they had no reason to leave it en mass. Are you seeing other predators other than the hawk?

I haven't seen anything other than the hawk in our actual yard but there are eagles everywhere around here, so I guess that could be a possibility. I've never seen one in my yard but they fly above our neighborhood all the time.

I live on an island though, and there are no coyotes on the island. I've also never seen a single dog roaming through the neighborhood. That's not to say that there aren't any dogs roaming around, but in the 2 years that we've lived in this house, I've never seen a dog unless it was on an owner's leash. The neighbors on both sides of us have dogs, but they have always been around so the cats knew that they were there. All of the yards are fenced in, and they have definitely sat on the fence looking down at the neighbor dogs but haven't ever seem afraid of them. Both of those houses have cats too, so while one dog is yappy and loud, it also lives with cats so I can't imagine that it would have killed them.

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what else could have possibly scared them away.

I hope and pray they will come back

Marina

I spayed/neutered approx. 15 feral cats and now I'm down to 5 or 6. One was dying on our property last summer; he was unable to move and died later that afternoon. Then another 2 were missing and I think they had crawled into the hood of our cars. I followed my husband with my car and saw that he ran over a cat. I stopped, looked at the cat (she was paralized) and thought she looked like one my ferals. I had to leave and when I came back she was gone from that spot. The next day I realized that she was mine because she used to follow me around on our property. I think that was how I lost a few other ones also and maybe to disease? I'm trying to catch all of them again and get their immunizations up to speed. Not only rabies, but anything else as well. They are good snake catchers and keep my chicken coop rat free. It is definitely worth having them around where we live / in the boonies.

Oh my goodness how horrible! I'm so sorry! Yes, especially during the cold weather we bang on the hood a number of times and slam the doors a couple of times before starting the car. And then we give it a couple of "false starts" before actually turning over the engine.

We have a colony of 10 feral cats living in our side yard.  They have 3 different shelters (warm, dry, safe) and a separate feeding hut.  We feed them canned food at least twice a day and always leave water and dry food available.  They are now all spayed/neutered...what a project that was!

Last spring (April 2014) seven of the cats disappeared.  Within 2 days, it appeared we were down to 3 cats.  Those 3 cats we saw all summer, every day, but did not have one single sighting of any of the 7 other cats who we had seen pretty much every day for the past year and a half.  We were sad, but also curious - what could have happened to 7 cats, so quickly, with no "evidence"  of their demise? No bodies, no signs of struggle in or around their shelters or feeding hut.  

NOW - the GOOD news ---- just before the first cold snap one of the missing 7 showed up!  We had not seen her at all since April 14, 2014 and September 23, 2014, there she was waiting for dinner at the regular feeding time!! 

By October 1, 2014, the entire colony was back.   They have been using their shelter, eating and hanging around all day, every day, all winter long.

A side note - (sad!) - one of the 3 cats who stuck around all last summer, was hit by a car and killed last Friday, Feb 13th and the rest of the colony (except 2 cats) disappeared for 2 entire days.  Then over the course of the next 3 or 4 days, all the cats have re-appeared, one by one. 

Also, on NY Eve one of our very near neighbors shot off a bunch of fireworks.  All cats disappeared for an entire day (and the temp was -4!!).  They were not in any of their shelters on our property and they did not eat any of their food on Jan 1.  By Jan 2, three cats returned (very hungry!) and by Jan 3 all cats were back.

So yes, trauma or fear or whatever will cause the entire group to hunker down for days at a time, then slowly reappear as they feel the threat has passed.  

Good luck with yours!  We were soooo happy when ours all came back.  I hadn't dared to hope they would, but cats are smart and feral cats especially are cautious and extremely stealthy.  Keep leaving food our during the day.  If possible, pick it up and just leave water at night, then put the food out early in the morning and watch to see if they come back.