pregnant stray cat disappeared!!

She probably is off giving birth. If she chose a good nesting place, the kittens shouldn't freeze, but even if they do, if you don't know where they are there's nothing you can do about it . If they survive, she'll start bringing them around to your house for food when they're about 5 weeks old. At that point, if she lets you handle them, do so as often as possible, and you can find good homes for them. If she doesn't let you handle them, you'll have to kitty-nap them so you can tame them. You can have her spayed when the kittens are 8-9 weeks old.

The kitten who stayed with her is probably a girl (in my experience, they chase off their sons around 4 months of age (or they wander off looking for a territory no other tom has claimed yet), but girls will stay with their mothers until they have their own litter, even helping with the next litter), so you'll need to have her spayed as well, as she'll be getting pregnant pretty soon. She'll probably come for food before her mother does, but she'll most likely be helping with the babies and you won't see her as much.

Good on you for taking care of these poor kitties! I hope everything works out for them.

Oh dear! It is possible she is having the kittens or just is at one of her other hang outs. The mother will have to leave the nest to eat and that is when the kittens will be at serious risk of death from the cold. I sure hope you see her tonight and can snatch her up. Have you touched her before? Are you able to handle her? This would be great and much easier to get her to the vet.

I didn't know that the girls will stay with the mother longer. That explains why the three kittens I trapped along with their mother were all female and older kittens. The males are still out there and I plan on trying to trap them again.

Good luck and I hope the mother comes around tonight. Keep us posted

I'm sorry to read that she's still missing. I hope she comes back to you soon.

If she's tame, I don't think it would hurt anything if you went looking for her. If you find her, don't try to drag her out or anything, but if she's done having the babies and you can reach them, you can bundle them all into a box and take them inside.

But wait till you have daylight. She might come to you if she is very hungry. If you can find the kittens and the nest and she trusts you, you can gather them up and bring them all inside. I pray you find her, or better yet I pray she hasn't had the kittens.

I will tell you about the mother of my feral kittens. I, too, thought she was VERY pregnant. I was able to trap her and the kittens. I brought her to the vet. She had very large nipples and had milk. But she was NOT pregnant. She just looked it because the kittens were still nursing even at six months because they were so hungry. So, it is possible that she in not pregnant, but that the kitten who is with her is still nursing and then she will keep producing milk.

Isn't it just amazing how they find their way right into our hearts - and we feel such a sense of responsibility for them?

My husband HATED cats - and after that first cat adopted us (!!!!!), it just changed everything. Like you, we had a mom cat bring her kittens here. We adopted two of that litter as our first indoor-only pets. And Gary called everyone we knew with cats to apologize for not liking them.

for mommy!

I would.

Yes, leave everything the same as you normally do. Leave the garage open a bit if you do that normally. I bet she might have given birth then if you saw the older kitten come and eat tonight without the mother. I bet that older kitten knows where her mother is too. Wouldn't it be cool if that kitten would let you follow her to the nest? Unfortunately that is just my wishful thinking. I hope you can find her tomorrow. I am sure she is not too far away because she knows you are there to feed her and she knows she needs to be near her food resource. They are very smart and instinctive.
for the mother and kittens.

Good Luck. I am glad you are not having our freezing temps. It is five BELOW zero right now. I doubt any kittens being born near me wouldn't make it. Hope you find mother

What we need to hope is that someone else was also putting out food.

Try not to worry, although I know that is hard. But, she had kittens before and knows what to do and how to care for herself as well. Yes, the cold weather is bad, but she could be receiving food from someone else along with you too. Sometimes, the ferals/strays have a few different "feeding stations" set out for them from other kind-hearted people like yourself. So, let's just hope for that. Please keep posting, because a few of us here want to know how things are going for you and the mother cat. I am glad the kitten followed you back to your patio from the pool. Could you trap that kitten and get him/her fixed? You can borrow a trap from most rescue organizations in your area. You just have to get on the internet to find some in your area and give them a call. I couldn't believe how helpful these rescues were to me.

A mom cat normally will abandon their existing kittens when they give birth to the next litter. I had a feral cat that would show up with kittens when they were about 5-6 weeks old, hang around long enough to make sure they knew where the food bowls were (and avoid my trap), and leave until she had her next litter. I had a great spot for cats but she had another sweet spot that I never found. She pulled this on me for a couple of years until I finally got her.

You need to take care of her remaining kitten as she has most likely abandoned it entirely. If you see her again, which will probably be in about 5 weeks, grab her and all her kittens and get her spayed. I made the mistake of trying to wait until my feral weened her babies to trap her and by then she would disappear again.

Kitten season up here (Kansas City) is April. Kitten season by you (Houston) is earlier. February is a bit earlier than normal (they usually start to arrive down there in early March), but not unheard of. Your shelters will be filling up with kittens in the very near future.

Yes, my concern too now is the remaining kitten. If she is over two pounds weight, she can be spayed. I am glad to hear you have help with that kitten. Because she will have kittens of her own soon enough and the problem just magnifies. Let us know how you are doing

HA HA! It is so true. These stray cats just know where the "softies" live, don't they. How is the kitten today?

Hope mom cat is alright. Actually, trapping is quite easy if you can get a Hav-a-Heart trap. They are pretty easy to set and kittens are usually not as wary as older kittens or adults. Hunger will take over and she will go right in. I covered the back half of the trap with a dark towel to make the trap feel more secure. Don't leave the trap unnattended though. You have to plan a time when you have awhile to watch the trap. When I trapped the family outside, the brave kitten went in the trap withing three minutes!!! I thought that the process would go that quick with all of them. Not so. It took me three days to trap all five.

So this one kitten should be fairly easy. Have a plan set-up with the vet so you can bring the kitten straight to the vet. This would be ideal. Most vets will have open scheduling for you if they know you are trapping and can't possibly make an exact appt. day. If you trap the little girl after hours, just keep her calm in the trap over night in the garage with food, water, and I was able to slip in one of those disposable Tidy Cat litter boxes on one end of the trap!! I couldn't believe it, it was almost like they were made for traps! I put a folded towel at the other end of the trap as a bed and put the bowls on that end too. The trap I had opened both ends so I was able to slide these items in on either side. Some traps only open on one end. But she should be fine for one night in the trap.

This really is a wonderful thing you are doing for this kitten. She probably is young enough to become quickly tame and adopted. You are saving lives

She has another place where she is eating, otherwise she would hang out by your place. If she is an experienced mom, she will find a quiet place to have her kittens close to another food source. She'll leave them long enough to eat then return to her nest. Chances are if she brought her last litter to you, she sees your location as a better place to raise kittens that are weaned and will leave them in your hands to care for.

This is exactly how my household got so large. I didn't always catch the moms, but always took care of the kittens. I stopped this cycle 8 years ago when I bought a humane live trap and took a very active role in catching and fixing every cat in the neighborhood. Before that time I would borrow traps, but my timing was usually wrong.