Some Questions - Pregnant? Or something else?

I apologize if this is long, so thank you for reading!

I have a lot of experience with ferals as far as trapping, neutering and returning them. I've also socialized several and have found homes for a few, while other still live with me. I had one pregnant mother that I trapped, and she gave birth a few days later in our old apartment. But aside from that, I have no experience with pregnant ferals that are still outside. I don't even know how to tell if they ARE pregnant just by looking at them from a distance.

We're living at a hotel right now, waiting to move into a house that we just bought. The first night we were here (middle of August), we were woken up at 2am by a cat crying. We thought it was one of our cats possibly locked in a closet. We're in a small hotel room with 11 cats who are constantly getting into drawers or scurrying into the closet when we don't realize it. So a cat crying from inside the closet wasn't something weird. So we checked. No cat in the closet. We finally figured out that the sound was coming from outside (I guess we were only half awake and the sound didn't sound like it was coming from the window at first). There was a small cat crying up at the window, while 2 of our cats stared down at it. We tried to approach it, but it ran away. (And for the record, I hate saying "it" but I haven't figured out if its a he or a she yet.) It did come back though and I got up a few times during the night and found him just sleeping outside of our window. So the next night I put food out for it. Every night since then, I've been putting food out, trying to gain its trust.

I thought I was succeeding because I've been able to get closer and closer to him every day. He would appear at the window around the same time every night, and I'd go out to feed him. The hotel sits on the corner of a busy intersection so I am terrified that something is going to happen to this cat. I've been trying to find a place to get a trap from, but while the hotel allows cats to stay here, they don't want people feeding any strays outside. So I've been trying to plot how to catch this guy/girl without a trap being obvious outside. (We already have more cats in this room than we are supposed to have, and since we have no place to live right now, I can't call unwanted attention to ourselves.) Then 2 nights ago he didn't come by for food at the normal time. I thought the worst, but I still put food out. In the morning, the food was still there - untouched. We had to bring the food in so no hotel staff would find it during the day. The next night (last night) he didn't come by again. I was still fearing the worst, but I put food out anyway. At 4am I woke up and checked and the food was still there. However, at 6am, the food was gone. I hoped it was the cat that had eaten it and it was! I saw it again tonight at the usual time.

Now for my question though. The cat seems thin, but not unhealthy. I know it can have some type of illness that I can't see, but by outward appearances he just seems undernourished, but otherwise healthy. However, when I put the food out today, I watched it run up to it and noticed its belly was sort of jiggling. Thats the best way I can describe it. It looked the way a fat cat would look if you saw it running, except this cat isn't fat. So he/she came right to the food, gobbled up about 1/4 of it and then he/she disappeared. Thats unusual because it usually finishes eating and then goes and sits behind a truck in the parking lot grooming itself. But it didn't do that today.

I know that maybe he/she is just full and didn't want to eat every bite tonight. And on some nights he/she has eaten some food immediately and then came back for the rest later. But it ALWAYS grooms itself in the parking lot after eating.

So I realize maybe its sick. Or maybe it just doesn't want to eat. I know there can be many different reasons as to why he disappeared for 2 nights, then only ate some food tonight and then disappeared again. But it occurred to me tonight that I wonder if its a female and she's pregnant, or that she just had kittens. Could that explain the disappearance for a full night and then a half of night? Then the quick eating tonight and disappearing? Also, the jiggling belly (its not a fat belly, it just seemed loose - thats the best way I can describe it)? I have NO experience with outdoor pregnant cats, and I have no idea where this one even lives during the day, but since we're on such a busy road right now, I'm wondering if I should go looking for kittens. Or maybe I'm just completely over reacting. What is the behavior of a feral cat who just had kittens? Has anyone dealt with this before? I would ideally like to trap this guy/girl soon, but if there might be kittens out there, then I can't do that, unless I find the kittens. And if there aren't any kittens, then I need to get this cat to a vet to see if its even a healthy cat in the first place, but I feel like I need to rule out the kitten theory before trapping.

Anyway, any advice or thoughts would be appreciated!

Ah what a love you are!

We don't really have experience with pregnant females either. We trapped one that went into labor as soon as we got her to the vet. And we've had two feral mommas give birth before we trapped them, but we didn't see them before they had kittens, so we didn't even know they were there to trap.

I do know I've seen people on here write about looking at their nipples. Don't know if you can get a look at them from the window now that she's not hanging out there.

But if there are kittens... I don't recommend looking for them, because it usually just results in mom moving them.

This situation with the hotel certainly makes it more difficult!

Any idea when you're going to be moving into your house? (Congrats, BTW!). Because AFTER you're out of there, it'll be a lot easier to talk to the hotel about trapping her (and maybe kittens).

Now, if she'd had kittens, I don't think she'd be looking fat still? Not sure.

And is it that she was fat when you saw her running - or potentially that he/she had loose skin on the belly? That happens to a lot of cats when they're older. OR it could be a belly full of worms.

Right now... I'd just keep putting food out for her. If you can get a better look at him/her, and see if the belly is bulging, I'd take that as a sign that if it's a she, she hasn't given birth.

Of course, the best would be to get a good look at kitty walking away, and hopefully see male bits!

Wish I had better thoughts/advice. Hopefully someone else will.

How is it that these stray cats just know WHERE the "softies" (cat lovers ) live. You really are a dear to be trying to help her. I can understand your worry about the hotel management finding out about you putting food out or even a trap. I guess you could tell a "little" fib to management....... . You could go to the office and tell them one of your cat's accidentally got loose and you need to set a trap to catch it. The only worry would be, as you say, not wanting to draw attention to you and your 11 cats. So not sure if you want to risk that. OR>>>> you could just tell them the truth about this stray and that you want to trap it and get it fixed and possibly find it another situation. But I am feeling unconfident about that only because most of these hotel management/ apartment complex management have the same outlook "IF you don't feed them, they will go away!!". That is not true, these cats will hang around dumpsters and places like these hotels for scraps and garbage.

Another idea It would be perfect to camoflauge the trap somehow too, under a truck or something. They do have smaller Havahart traps. I have the small one and the large one. The small one would fit easily under a vehicle. I have actually caught a full-sized cat in one of those small traps. The hotel management wouldn't see a trap like that under a car.

There really is no way to tell if this cat is nursing unless you can get a closer look at her tummy. And the only way to do that would be to trap her and take her to a vet for an examination. If they think she just gave birth, then you would have to bring her back and release her or her kittens will perish. . The vet will be able to tell you.

Also, as Laurie says, alot of cats do have that hanging belly that sway's to and fro when they walk and run about. So this could be a male. I guess if I were you, I would see about trapping (on a day the vet is open) so you can just get the cat in and checked. Also, have you thought about your plans (if any ) for this cat? Are you going to release it back outside? I am sure you are already tossing these things around in your head.

It is hard, being such a big-hearted cat lover, isn't it????!!!!! . It takes work and such a comittment, but it is so worth the effort. Best of luck with your decision and we are here to help/support you in any way

p.s. Congratulations on your new house!!!!

I'm sorry that I haven't responded to this yet. The internet at the hotel is kind of spotty, so it comes and goes, and tends to stop working just at the time I need it to work!

Thanks for the responses. I would have never thought about putting a trap under a truck but that is seriously a fantastic idea! I couldn't figure out how I was going to work the trapping because there are cameras on the hotel that definitely aim right where I would have wanted to put the trap. I don't think they watch those cameras 24/7, but it would have been kind of obvious if I put a trap out there. Plus people walk by that area all the time. I've been worried that someone is going to ask why they've walked past a cat eating food. We're on the first floor, and I put the food out on the sidewalk under our window. Its usually late enough so that there aren't a lot of people walking by,but I watch the cat from the window and people have definitely seen her eating. I have seen her hiding underneath my husband's car though, so I think it would work to trap him under a car or truck.

As for the "fat", its definitely more like loose skin on the belly. I don't think this cat is old though, but I could be completely wrong. My guess is that its not even a year old. I don't think its full grown yet. But then again, I have one cat that I swore had to be at least 10 years old, and the vet told me it was unlikely that he was older than 3. I had another one that was initially estimated to be about 5 years old, and after some health problems, the vet said he was probably closer to 10. So I might not be the best person to judge the age of a cat, but I'm 90% sure that this one isn't full grown yet. Its not really a bulging belly either. It really just looks like loose skin. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get close enough to see if it has man parts or not. He/she keeps his/her tail in a constant position so that I can't see its butt. Whenever I see it walking away I've been hoping it will lift its tail up, but that hasn't happened yet. Last night I was able to get the closest I've ever been though, which was exciting to me. I managed to get less than a foot away before it ran away. And it only ran about 5 feet away, then hissed at me, but didn't run any further. And I interpreted the hiss as a way of saying "I think I'm supposed to hiss at you...so I will..." There was nothing at all threatening about that hiss.

I was worried that it was a she who might have given birth recently based on the fact that it disappeared for 2 nights and then didn't hang around the parking lot when it re-appeared. But since then, its been back to its normal routine of eating, then grooming itself in the parking lot for a while. So I don't know what the deal was with the 2 night disappearance. I suppose the possibility of kittens is still there, but she doesn't seem to be eating and then disappearing anymore, so I'm guessing that based on that, she doesn't have babies to rush back to.

As for what I'm going to do with it. I honestly have no idea, so I'm wondering if there is anyone on this site who would be able to help, or give me some ideas. I can't keep it, as much as I would love to. I said that my limit was 10...and I have 11. I just can't realistically bring another cat into our house. I wish I had to resources to do so, but I also have to know when I have too many, and adding a 12th cat would be too many. Every single no-kill shelter around here is completely full. I've already been researching them and there are waiting lists a mile long to get into one.

I can't leave this little guy or girl out here though. We're sitting on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in town, and I've already seen several dead cats on the road since we've moved here. More than once I've panicked and thought that one of them was the one I was feeding. Its still awful to me that any cats have been killed, but I feel connected to this one, so I am terrified that he's going to meet the same fate as the other cats around here. He doesn't even seem to be afraid of cars. I have no idea if he goes into the street or not, but I was watching him last night. He was sitting behind a truck in the parking lot when another car pulled into the parking lot and parked in the spot right next to the truck. The cat didn't move at all, but it looked like the driver of the car saw the cat and hesitated before pulling into that spot. The cat only moved when the person got out of the car and walked near it. So it appears that he's afraid of people, but not of cars, and that doesn't make me feel good about this intersection.

I can foot the bill for initial vet care and spay/neuter. And I'm willing to foster this little gal/guy, but I just can't realistically keep him forever. So I'm kind of at a loss. Does anyone know of anyone in south Texas who would be able to help in some way? I would love to find him a home, but he's obviously going to take some work because he's not a social cat. But at the same time, I don't think that he's completely feral either. But the average person who just wants a lap cap probably isn't going to be interested in a skittish stray.

I'm in Corpus Christi, TX right now and I would feasibly be able to drive for 3 hours in any direction to drop off the cat. If anyone is around who could help take him in, or knows of a place that could take him in thats farther than 3 hours away from me, I could possibly work something out to get him there.

We move into our house in 13 days, so I would ideally like to have a plan by that point, and potentially already have him trapped and neutered by that point too. However, as it was pointed out, it may be more feasible to trap after we move out of the hotel and into the house. So if anyone has any ideas of what I can do I would love to hear them. Its just too dangerous to leave him here, even if I came back to feed him every single night. I'm determined to get him away from this intersection, but I just need a plan .

Aw you have a heart of gold . And like you needed this, right?????!!!! But I agree and thank you for trying to rescue this cat and take him away from the dangers of the road. Could one of the local shelters support you in fostering this cat temporarily . Then they might assist you financially until another foster comes about? I know this is a lot to take on with all of your other cats and the big move coming up . These cats just don't know what we put ourselves through just for them . I really will hope that a rescue steps up to help you with this cat. You are doing such a loving thing for him . And yes, glad you agree with the trap under the truck. I really do not see why the management would care anyway if you are trapping this cat then you wouldn't have to hide the trap. You would think they would thank you for taking the cat away ( if you can find somewhere for him ). Even if you have to come back after you move to feed and trap him, management will see you doing that and you might need their permission . I hope they will work with you in this.

Will keep my fingers crossed that maybe someone near you from this site has some suggestions to offer.