Mother Cat calling for kittens - when will it stop?!

Hello everyone!

I started living in Japan in March of this year. Early on I started feeding a feral cat that wandered around the back of my apartment. Long story short, she had 3 kittens, I became aware of them recently. They were about 8 weeks and with the help of a rescue we trapped them and the mother. We knew that the kittens were on the brink of being tame or feral so we had to seperate them. She's been trapped and fixed and the kittens are at the rescuer's house. Originally we tried fostering them in my apartment, but the mother cat and the babies could hear eachother through the walls so the mother went crazy trying to get in my apartment, even pulling my screen door clean out of the frame.

So here's my problem. I caught the last kitten a little over a day ago and the kitten got picked up soon after. Since, the mother has been crying all around the neighborhood. She's never been an approachable cat, and I just can't soothe her. She's clearly looking for the kittens. I let her in my apartment once so she could see that they weren't with me. But about every hour she calls out loudly. It breaks my heart. But my neighbors must be going nutty. I've already been identified as The Foreigner Who Feeds That Dirty Stray Cat (even though others do it too)
I've taken in pregnant cats before and when it came time to give away the kittens it was never as bad as this. She calls for 5 minutes at a time every hour or more. Late at night, early in the morning, all day. What can I do? How long can I expect her to continue this? From her perspective, it must be a terrible time and I can't even give her tasty treats to distract her.

captainblasters

Welcome to TCS! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Why can't she be with her kittens at the rescuer's house? It makes sense, and kittens need their moms still. They will still be tamed, and mom will get friendlier being with them.

Most mom cats continue to nurse after spaying, and kittens learn their manners from interacting with mom for several more weeks. Whenever possible, I recommend not separating mom and kittens for at least 12 weeks.

if she were a different kind of cat, that might be a good option. But she is 100% not house friendly. I've been feeding her daily for 6 months and she hasn't let me touch her once. In fact, sometimes she still tries to smack me as I put her food down. She would not do well inside and would probably teach the kittens to be terrified of humans. (that is, more than they already are.)
I also would like to keep kittens with their mothers for as long as possible, but both I and the rescue agreed that this is the best option among many difficult options.
Thank you for your input though! I appreciate it.

In that case, there is nothing to do. She will stop calling for them in the next few days. It's sad. At least she is fixed now. Thank you for that, and for rescuing her kittens from street life!