Tom cat's a great mommy!!!

So my Tom cat (who I've been unsucessful in trapping) had kittens with a very young illusive mother who I cant seem to trap either! Anyway it was her 1st litter and she was a very poor mother. I had seen her and knew she was pregnant b/c she would come for food. I waited and waited expecting to see her bring her kittens to show them the food source and needless to say it never happened. Well the Tom cat, Angus brought them! He has been successful in showing every stray in the neighborhood where my house and the food is! LOL

He has taken on a very "motherly" role with them and has taught them everything from how to play to where to sleep. He waits to eat until they are finished then grooms them when they are all done. Last night my hubby was sitting outside and he kept an eye on him making sure he didnt bother the kittens!

Before the kittens he would only come every couple days and now he stays here all day with them. Its so cute!
Has anyone else seen a Tom do this?

Nice!

Is the mother still with them? Ie, are they a family group?

Toms helping the mom isnt that unusual with indoors cats. Like often seen by breeders.
The stud not always the father, but usually of course good pal with the female.
Neutered males are not seldom such help mothers.

Free living toms? This is a very striking example, althoug I have seen more than once our forumist hinting about family groups. Ie mom, kitten, father / a male holding together.

This is very interesting, cats are supposed to be solitaries...

As we see, this is not entirely true.


Good luck!

YES I did have a male feral named Yogi . I never really knew how old he was, vet said he was about one to two when I got him TNRd. Anyway, he watched over the three kitten girls last winter. It was the most heartwarming thing I ever witnessed. At first I wasn't sure if he was a brother, although he just seemed too wise to be a young kitten. He must have been Dad. He would be out there all day long with the kittens watching over them. Mother, Dixie, was very reclusive and I rarely saw her. It took me three nights to trap Dixie. The third night she went into the trap at 2:30 a.m. It was very, very brutally cold last December when I trapped this family of cats. Anyway, Yogi on one bitterly cold morning, it was about 5 degrees. Sat outside the feeding shelter. I could not for the life of me figure out why he wasn't going into the shelter to eat and stay warm (I had a heating pad in it too) with the other two kittens that went in before him. He just sat on the freezing snow and ice looking back to the bushes across the yard. Then I saw why, out of the bushes came Magilla, the shyest and most timid of the three kittens. She crouched and crawled along the frozen ground to Yogi. He took his paw and pushed her towards the shelter entrance. He sat outside in those brutally cold winds and temps. while the kittens ate their breakfast. Needless to say, I brought more warm wet/canned food for him that morning and every morning for that matter. I was absolutely, positively dumbfounded and that was a moment I will never forget for the rest of my life. My heart completely melted and I KNEW that was a very, very special cat. These feral cats do watch over their young, tom's included. I don't think all of them would be so caring and protective, just the really, really special ones.

The last time I ever saw Yogi was Friday, April 29th this year. . I don't know what happenned to him. It totally broke my heart. My heart still aches for him. He was a very, very special feral to me, more so than any other. The other sad part to this story is that I was planning on socializing him over the summer and trying to find him a home that he deserved. He had an old, kind soul. And I hope he knew how much I loved him.

You have a very special tom cat and I will hope and pray you can get him trapped. He will be a much more happy and healthy boy after his neuter too. He reminds me of Yogi Best of luck to you

Wow! What a great story about Yogi! I can only pray someone took him in! My Tom is very skiddish but will get about 2ft from me if I move very slowly. The thing thats really stressing me out is he is so protective of the kittens he keeps fighting with my favorite female Howly. She hates the kittens and chases them from her personal feeding station, then Angus chases her. Its a very delicate situation right now considering Howly keeps swatting at me from misdirected aggression. Her and I usually spend an hour or two together at night while I pet her and now she's so upset I need to watch her behavior very closely so I dont get hurt! LOL

I feed the kittens and Tom (Angus) out back but they creep up front constantly!

As for the mommy, once she was done weaning, she was done with the kittens, apparantly to get pregnant again. I see her every now and again and she shows no sign of recognizing her babies. She's pretty much a kitten herself. Judging from her size and behavior she's 1-2 yrs. I remember her as a kitten about a year ago.

I have found that our Sterling is a great mother cat, too. It's just killing him that I'm not letting the foster kittens out very much, yet.