Where Did My Ferals Go?

I'm hoping that someone who has more experience of caring for feral cat colonies than I do can help me understand what is happening here.

There is a small colony of feral cats in my old neighbourhood. I used to feed them daily when I lived there and they have all been TNR'd, with the exception of a few roaming tom cats who come by once a week or so. The core group of around 9 cats are fed a couple of times a day by three different families that live in the area and one of the women who feeds them lets them sleep in her garage.

I go down maybe twice a week to visit and give them a little extra food.

About two weeks ago over a three day period four cats went missing. A 3 year old female and an 18 month old female one night, a four year old male the following night and a 7+ year old female two nights after that. Apparently they were there in the evening but gone the next morning and haven't been seen since.

No one heard anything (the garage they sleep in is directly below a bedroom) and no cats were found knocked over on the road. (City hall was called several times to check)

These cats are quite wild and won't let anyone touch them, so it's unlikely that anyone could have picked them up.

Is it common for cats to disappear like that? What can have happened to them? Several cats went missing over the four year period that I lived there. A few were hit by cars but we always knew about that because we either found them on the road or called City Hall and heard that a dead cat had been removed from the street.

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions.

I fear it is a predator of some kind, new in this are, or whom by any reason began to hunt cats for real now.  Pray its one on four legs.

Theoretically it could be an overzealous adopter, but it doesnt sound so here.

I don't have more experience with feral colonies, but will give my thoughts anyway.

Do you live near woods? Is there wildlife nearby? Raccoons generally don't pick fights with adult feral cats, but a coyote might. Raccoons and opossum that are sick might also attack a cat.  

You may want to post something on your local Face Book pet lost and found website (most cities and counties have them), inquiring if anyone has seen these cats. If you have pictures of them, you can post them on that site. It also wouldn't hurt to drive around within a half mile radius to ask people if they've seen the cats. They may have found another caregiver, or are looking to establish their own territory elsewhere.  

My experience has been that feral cats who have a caregiver and are well-fed are too savvy to eat something that doesn't smell right to them (so they wouldn't eat poisoned food), and the ones who have been trapped once are often too smart to go into a trap again. Unless someone is shooting them (which is against the law in most places) I don't think a human culprit is the cause. At least I hope not.

I take care of a small community cat colony near Washington, DC; it use to be much bigger but since I moved and food is less, there are less cats coming around.
Some of the ferals disappear for a day or two; one cat (definitely not feral) disappeared for two weeks. Kimba and Sandy disappeared forever.
If the area is heavily trafficed, then I think injury is a possibility. The cat will drag himself to a relatively safe place to hide (behind bushes) and perhaps to die. If the area has a lot of wildlife (foxes, coyotes, etc.) then the cats may be food (especially if the area is very cold and birds/squirrels have gone hiding too).
If the cats are very feral, then, yes, I don't think a human is the culprit--the ferals would run away.

The first thing to do is to carefully scan the surrounding area. If it's a 4 legged predator there will be signs, fur, blood, SOMETHING. Even if it is a territorial tomcat that is chasing them away (although I can't see that with females) there would still be hair. If it is a disease, you'll find the body. With that many missing, I would keep a watch for the 2 legged variety I hate to say. Maybe some of the neighbors can keep a watch for any strangers coming around. My heart goes out to you, I know you care for and love those cats, I'll pray that they all show up!

Thank you for all your suggestions.

The area these cats are in is a very quiet area of farmland next to a lake in National Parkland, so yes, very rural and wooded.

My first thought was a predator too. We don't have raccoons or possums in Japan. We have Asian Raccoon dogs, Tanuki, but these are very small and not aggressive. They mainly forage for nuts and roots. The only native animal that might hurt a cat is a fox. I had my trail camera out at the feeding station for 18 months and saw one fox in that time. Local people tell me that foxes aren't big enough to take an adult cat and they've often seen cats chasing them off.

Maybe someone's dog got loose, but wouldn't a dog make a lot of noise if it attacked a cat? And would a dog keep coming back to the same spot night after night? There aren't any stray dogs around, you get a hefty fine if your dog is found running loose in Japan.

There has been a lot of snow in the past two weeks, so that's covered everything up. Then again, if there had been a fight or an accident blood would be easy to spot.

It's frustrating that I can't be down there every day looking out for them. I'm going to go down tomorrow and try to talk to two other people I know who feed colonies in that area, see if their cats are all OK.

I feel bad about not taking them all with me when I moved, but people had been caring for these cats for years before I came along. It didn't seem right to take them all away.

Our whole colony disappears for large amounts of time when we have extreme weather (cold or snow)....even though our cat shelters have outdoor cat heating pads, plus we leave the door to our detached garage open about 12 inches 24/7 when it's bad -with a second food station in there and another place to sleep. So...while, for ferals they've got it fairly good, they do disappear during bad weather. Sometimes for up to a Monty!!!

Bottom line-don't panic yet (I know, easier said then done!!!!!!). If a predator came after them, you'd definitely see evidence. And the disappearing thing is pretty universal-this past few weeks it's been SO horribly cold in ohio, & I've talked to multiple people whose ferals disappeared during this time too.

So keep you chin up & keep us posted!

Thanks for the reassurance @kittychick  

I've been going down to check on the colony a couple of times a week and spent a bit of time wandering around the area. One of the ferals who went missing has moved to a farmyard about 1/4 mile away. The farmer leaves food out on his deck for the cats and there is a big barn for them to shelter in. I guess she felt more comfortable there.

While I was walking around calling them last night I met one of the occasional visitors, a big white tom, down on the lake shore about a mile from where they usually get fed and another female. (Not one who has been missing, one who still turns up to be fed every day) in some fields about 1/2 mile further on.

They both recognised my voice and came over to see what I'd brought them. It's great seeing those glowing eyes appear out of the darkness.

It feels a lot warmer today and the snow has started to melt. Hopefully some more of them will turn up again soon.

Norachan, you said there was a lot of snow in the past several weeks that covered everything up...could it be just the snow and cold itself that caused their disappearance? Like kittychick said, they may have disappeared for awhile, or, sadly, they could not make it through the snow and cold without eating regularly?

I really don't understand why snow and cold would make ferals disappear...you would think they would stay near their food source...

I think the snow might have something to do with it. I've noticed two things happening. First of all the usual landmarks and smells are covered by snow so they can't find their way around so easily. They'll find themselves a safe spot and just hunker down until the world goes back to normal. Or they find themselves some shelter and then don't move, either because they are snowed in or because they don't want to venture out.

Last year we had 2 meters of snow in 24 hours. One of the cats I care for, Lizzie, was gone for ten days. Because there was so much snow the whole town basically shut down for a few days. No one could get to work, the streets didn't get cleared of snow as the snow ploughs were all out on the highway trying to clear a path for trucks to get through. Most of the shops and restaurants closed until the delivery trucks made it into town.

I think Lizzie must have got herself snowed in under someone's porch or in a barn. It wasn't until people began to clear paths that she came back again. She was fine, not even that hungry considering what she'd been through. I hope the rest of the feral cats have found themselves a nice barn or a derelict house to hide in. One good thing about living in the country is there's always plenty of prey around, even in the winter.