Feral Mama separate from kitten in crawlspace of my home

I was able to trap two of the feral cats around our home four days ago. This was a mama and a small kitten about four months old. I had them spayed and neutered, vaccinated and tested. The vet said that the mama needed at least two days confined recovery as the incision was especially large.

The kitten was to be confined separately from mom so he would not lick her incision, as the Vet was concerned about risk for infection. I built two pens in our garage and confined them separately. However the mama escaped one of the pens and ran into the crawlspace of our home. I have been unable to retrieve her, although she is coming out at night and eating and drinking in the garage. I believe she is spending time there with the baby in the night. (The crawlspace opens into the garage.)

It is cold here and there are some very large, aggressive male cats so I do not want to release the kitten by himself. When he was the first one trapped, the mama was very upset, which is how I was able to trap her. Technically the kitten does not need her and should be able to function independently, or so I am told. However they are very bonded. There's also a significant incidence of feline AIDS and I think mom's presence might deter an atttack by a larger cat. The mama is a large cat.

If I let the kitten out of the pen, he will likely go into the crawlspace with mom and I will then have two cats in the crawlspace. [emoji]128542[/emoji] if I open the outside vent the mom will be released without the kitten and they will be separated. It is possible that I may not be able to reunite them successfully. The mom knows how to come here but the kitten may be disoriented and I worry about his survival.

I wish so much that I had the resources to socialize and place the kitten but I do not.
I do not want to keep the kitten confined but I urgently want to release them together. I welcome any ideas to resolve this that would keep the two together.

It may be time to let them both back out to the outside. Maybe you can let the kitten out, it will spend a day in the crawlspace with mom, and then let the garage open to the outside, I'm sure they will leave. Bless you for caring for these sweet babies, you are an angel! Keep us posted!

I was thinking the same thing as Bob and Di. If it is feasible, allow them to be reunited inside the crawl space and garage. Keep everything the same except releasing the kitten and leave them alone all day. The night of the final release, leave an opening to the outside - a window or door. Don't leave any food out that evening. It may attract other critters or cats.

Thank you for helping these two. With the other ferals, it sounds like you have you hands full. It may help if you are able to trap and fix them as well. It will calm them down, for sure.

Thank you so much for your feedback and support.  I really appreciate it!  It is so helpful to have the perspective of others who also care about these kitties. 

Oh one other bit of info that I can give you is about the other ferals here.  I have trapped five of them.  I was so sad to find out that two of them had Feline AIDS and could not be released back into the community.  However the other two were fine (the Mom and baby.)  I just trapped the fifth one this morning and I am anxiously waiting to hear his status.

A sixth one went into the trap but he actually got out even with the trap door going down!  He was trapped before when someone else trapped him and fixed him.  I was trapping him to test his infection status and update his vaccines.  He has been through a lot and I don't believe he would be trapped without using a drop trap (maybe not even with that as his reflexes are lightning fast.) 

Thanks again for your feedback and support.  

I wanted to let you guys know that I have followed your advice.  I have opened the door to the pen so the kitten can connect with the Mama.  I have put a gate at the garage side door so I can peek in without the kitty running out as easily.  Of course the door itself is closed.   I will not bother them in hopes that Mom kitty will come up today, though most likely it will not be until tonight.   I will let you know how it goes. 

Thank you so much for your updates, I pray everything will go well.

Fingers crossed!

Still waiting on the Mama and kitten but I am very excited about the other cat that I trapped this morning.  He is Feline HIV negative!  So happy!  So they have neutered him and given him his shots. 

I will keep you guys posted about the Mama and baby. 

Thanks so much for your prayers.  I will let you know what happens.

Esther Roberts said:

 
Still waiting on the Mama and kitten but I am very excited about the other cat that I trapped this morning.  He is Feline HIV negative!  So happy!  So they have neutered him and given him his shots. 

I will keep you guys posted about the Mama and baby. 

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I have a really concerning update about the situation with the kitties here at our house. It is complex to explain. 

I did open up the pen in the garage to allow the baby to connect with the Mom in the crawl space.  The baby promptly went into the crawl space but then things became very complicated.  There other crawlspace outlets are all to the backyard.  Our dogs play in that area so I cannot leave the the crawlspace continually open because they could potentially jump inside and chase the cats.  (Also another feral cat, possum or raccoon might enter that crawlspace from the outside.)

I opened up a single outside crawlspace cover while the dogs were inside, but they did not come out despite putting fresh cooked salmon there.  I had to cover it back up for the dogs to come out and play.  The cats did not go back into the garage area. 

So I had some friends come over to help "corral" them out of the crawlspace.  I placed a very large plastic crate attached to the crawlspace opening to the yard, so they would be released into it together.  I was concerned they might come out separately and be lost from each other, as they are both extremely stressed by now.  This would be particularly a concern if one came out long before the other and was very frightened. 

I had the garage well secured with only the crawlspace opened.  We entered the crawlspace and could not see the mother at all, which is very worrisome.   (I had seen her the first morning in the garage, but since then I have only seen that she is eating the food left in the garage and crawlspace.  I had assumed it was her eating the food as there is no other way for her to exit our home.)  However now I am worried. 

When we got into the crawlspace, we could only find the kitten.  Then we saw the kitten vanish up by the pipes from the tub.  There was an opening in the wood section.  Next part of our group thought they heard them in the attic so we climbed up in the attic but they were not there.  One of us was always in the crawlspace and they did not return there.  (We had it lit very brightly to be sure we would not miss them.)  So they were neither in the attic nor the crawlspace!!!

Then the concern became that they could potentially become trapped inside the walls.  Also we worried as we did not see the Mom at all.  The Mom weighs 15 pounds so she could become wedged, but she has strength.  Of course the kitten could slip and fall into a wall area and wedge perhaps more easily.  Who knows?

Our hope was that both cats had gone up into the walls by the pipes and could come back out the way they had gone in, but we are unsure.  I called the Fire Department for feedback.  We decided to put more wet and stinky food inside the crawlspace and the garage and then check this morning to see if it has been eaten.  Hopefully that will indicate that they (or at least one of them!) is okay.  This morning the wet food had been eaten entirely in the crawlspace and most of it in the garage.  So I know one of them has mobility but I do not know if both of them do.

The Fire Dept said to call Animal Control for help getting them out if we are unsuccessful (though I am unsure what they could do other than trap and they are NOT going into a trap after just having been trapped for spay/neuter.)   The Fire Dept also offered to come knock a wall out if we can isolate where they are.  (At this point my husband is truly groaning.)

So it seems at least one of them is not trapped, but I am stressed as I want to know if they are both safe.  I am REALLY concerned about how we are going to get them both out of there together, or at all.  If we just leave the crawlspace open and unmonitored, I may not know if/when they have successfully exited.  Also other animals could go into the crawlspace as they come out!  We plan to close it back up and I do NOT want to risk any animal being trapped in there. 

I think a VideoCam would be very helpful to know who is eating but I do not want to wait around if one of them is in trouble.  I could go buy a "Mommy Cam" for the crawlspace but I am also juggling our kids and other pets.  This is a truly challenging situation.  I need a handle right away on if they are both safe.

Has anyone had a situation similar to this or do you have additional suggestions?  I am sure there is a solution and I am trying to stay confident about this.  It has been unfolding since last Friday, so it is becoming more troubling by the day (and seems to be getting worse, not better.)  :-(   I am obviously not giving up and I appreciate your input and encouragement.

Thanks so much for helping me support these guys.  (I wish you could see them, as the Mom is a lovely, long haired white kitty with blue eyes and the Baby is a spunky green eyes, gray striped cutey.  So sweet!)

Oh dear.  I am so hoping for a good outcome.  You also could get a trail camera.  It is a bit less expensive, but only snaps pictures when there is movement.  You also have to go and retrieve the video card.  Yet it's cheaper than a mommy cam.  I so hope you are able to rescue these sweet kitties.  You are in my thoughts.

Thank you so much for thinking of me and the kitties.  I am so torn up about this.  I really wanted to make such a positive difference in their lives and instead this has generated so much stress for them.  On top of that it may actually be endangering them.  I am trying to stay calm and focused on solutions but it is so alarming to know they are in there somewhere in an unknown condition.

I just now went into the crawlspace again and they are not there nor in the garage.  Thanks for your support as I try to sort this out. 

I need to check today for a trail camera or a Mommy cam.  At least I can know if they are both okay.  Then the next challenge is to figure out what to do.

My husband suggested that I just leave the back open and hope they get out.  However how will I know for sure if they made it out.  It would kill me if I thought they came out and they never made it out.  There are a lot of pillars in the crawl space.  I need to set up a cam right by where the wet food is at and hope that I can see who is coming asap.

Can you scatter a thin layer of flour in the crawl space, then see if there are any large & small cat tracks heading outside?

I had previously scattered fine ground cornmeal but discovered that does not work.  It must be a bit too coarse.  :-(  So I know flour alone is the way to go.  Thanks so much for the input.

The latest update is that I bought a trail cam and installed it in the crawl space by the food.  I have reviewed all the images this morning and can clearly see the kitten feeding, but it is unclear if the Mom is there!  The Mom is white and the cam gives white colored images when they are too close.  So a number of the kitten pics are white, but you can tell it is him because they turn that color as he approaches the cam.  There are a couple of white images that I wonder if they could be her.  I just can't tell.  For pics the resolution runs low, though the video runs very high resolution but has limited space on the card that I had.  I thought it came with an SD card and I wound up having to format one from another camera in order to use it last night. 

I am totally perplexed and worried.  I briefly left the side outlet open at the start of setting this up.  One friend saw the white cat (Mama) go back inside right before I sealed it for the process of trying to rescue them together.  My friend has never seen either cat so I am unsure what to think.

The kitten looks fine, but I want him out of there asap as he must be in extreme stress.  If Mom is with him, as I believe and we can save her then I do want them released together.  I doubt the kitty will go into the trap (as you know.)  However I still have extra traps here should that be necessary to try.

I have switched the cam to video mode and replaced it by the food hoping I can catch clear images this morning.  If I do not see Mama kitty, I am at a loss as to what to do.  I do not know how we would locate her if she is in the walls as we are not hearing any localizing sounds.  I would think if the Mom somehow got out in that brief interval the outlet was open that she might be coming for food, unless she is staying away due to all the trauma.

Wow, this is really challenging.  I am very grateful to see at least the kitten looks okay but urgently want to know that the Mom is alright.  It is so helpful to be able to write about this to people who "get" really loving the ferals and not seeing them as "disposable." 

Thank you . . .

I am SO excited to have some really good news for those of you who have been concerned. 

The Mama kitty just showed up outside for food only minutes after I wrote my last post!!   So she is safe!!

It must have been the kitten that our friend saw feeding and she thought it was the Mom. 

I think I will try to trap the kitten hoping that somehow he will go for it since that is the only place food will be.  Then I can actually reunite him with his Mom when she comes in the morning for feeding.  Since she has shown up this morning, I assume that she is back to her routine of coming morning and evenings.  I hate the idea of him being in a trap, but maybe I can line it with a soft towel at the very back. 

Does anyone know if they can escape more easily if you put anything besides cardboard in there for trapping?  I would hate to mess this up.  It would be better to have him less than comfortable than to risk his eluding the trap if the towel might mess it up. 

I am so grateful this seems to be turning out alright, one step at a time. 

Thank goodness Mama is safe!!!  Now to get the kitten out.  I wouldn't put a towel or blanket in the trap as it might not go off since the kitten is so light.  I have used puppy pee pads since they are softer than newspaper.  Has the kitten been trapped before? 

I hope you can reunite the kitten and mama soon.

Thank goodness! I can't imagine the worry you have been through, I would be a basket case by now! I don't know much about trapping, I have never put anything in them, but I agree a towel in the back might make it a little more stressful. I'll pray that everything goes well, all the luck!!!