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?

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.

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 .

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 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.