Devastated...and need advice please

This....has been a sad morning.  One of the feral kittens out of the batch the two dumped pregnant momcats took a ride on the frame of my car this morning (after many precautions taken to keep them out from under our vehicles).  I got about 2 miles down the road, turned right at a red light onto the main road, and heard a thump.  That dreaded, awful thump.  I looked in the rearview mirror and saw a black and white kitten running like his butt was on fire into the state-owned hospital property.  I'm assuming it wasn't hurt too bad by the way it was running, but of course I have the "what-if's" going on now and it's killing me.  I turned around and drove around looking, but never saw it.  The state property is strictly off-limits and posted no trespassing (you can't even pull down one of the roads), so my search was limited to the surrounding county roads. And even if I did see it, it is totally feral, and won't come to anyone.  I finally gave up and headed to work.  I'm just devastated.  I do know there isn't anything I can do or could have done, but it's still just heavy on my heart.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to keep them out of vehicles?  Right now we are struggling with this.  We are parking far away from the house--last night I left my car almost at the road---and we beat on the hood, slam the door a few times, and if we see one dart up under the car we always get out the leafblower and flush them out.  This morning I had actually went out and started my car and let it run for about 10 minutes before I left and it was STILL up in there!  Last night we watched them run playing under my husband's truck and his car, and he was parked far away from the house on purpose.  We are at our wits end trying to keep them out.

And I still can't catch them!  Like I said, I am catching everything BUT them.  I've seen dog/cat repellant at the store but always doubted it would work, but now I'm desperate and considering getting some of it and spraying the underside of our vehicles.  Ideas???

So sorry!  Sometimes, no matter what you do, one of them gets away or goes missing or gets hurt.

Most of the repellents will wash off in the rain, so spraying it under the car would make it last longer.  Not sure if we can smell them, though.  Might make for a stinky car ride.

Maybe you can spray the area around the car first and see if that helps.  Banging on the hood of the car was what I was always told to do.  If that didn't work, the cat was determined to stay in there.

Thanks @Ondine   I am just so sad.  I have done everything I know to keep the little boogers safe.  We captured and homed two of them, and they are living the high life indoors with a fellow crazy cat lady.  I had hopes to do the same with the others!

I never thought the repellent might be stinky.....but I think I am going to get some today and at least try it.  It is just a battle I can't win

Yes, unfortunately, we can't save them all.  But thank goodness there are people like you who continue to try in the face of the odds.  Hope the deterrent isn't too smelly!

It will be worth it, even if it is, if it works.  My coworkers may not thank me, however.....then again, might be a good thing at work, no people coming in to chat, no distractions!

I would call that hospital and explain to them what you told us. Maybe they'd let you come look for the kitten or set a trap for him so he could be returned to you. Good luck and hugs!

Ginny said:

I would call that hospital and explain to them what you told us. Maybe they'd let you come look for the kitten or set a trap for him so he could be returned to you. Good luck and hugs!

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I'd do the same. If you have a trap, let them know you ill bring it by. 

What kind of state hospital doesn't let anyone on property? 

Kat0121 said:

 
I'd do the same. If you have a trap, let them know you ill bring it by. 

What kind of state hospital doesn't let anyone on property? 

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Generally, mental facilities.  I worked at one for awhile.  You COULD get on if you were visiting a patient, or had business, but you definitely had to go through an armed guard, and there was only one road onto and off of the campus.

Depending on how far away from "home" the faciilty is, your kitty may find his way back.

Ahhh..you got me started.  Sorry to ramble but it's a beautiful tragedy to me--about the hospital.  I'll try to make this short but it's hard!

I live almost next door to one of the state's oldest operating mental hospitals/facilities.  It's been there since late 1800's, early 1900's?  Anyway, it's a huge campus (630 acres).  It has beautiful grounds, several very old (now condemned) but beautiful buildings, and the main admin building (still in use) is a large castle-looking structure. Our backyard and adjoining land that we own butts up against thick acres and acres of woods that are part of the property.

Hubby's grandmother worked there when it was a working farm and self-sufficient, back in the early 1900's.  It is now a shadow of what it once was.  As outpatient care became the norm, the buildings were shut down one by one and just left standing to rot.  The state says it would cost more to demolish than what it is worth, so there they stand.  It was home to many unwanted handicapped folks over the century, families would just drop them off either because they couldn't care for them or they couldn't work on a farm.  Many unwanted individuals lived and died there, they were more of the population than those that actually needed mental healthcare and treatment.  So sad.  The architecture is gorgeous and nothing like it will ever be built there again.  Tunnels run underground from building to building, some shut down, some still in use.  Ghost stories abound, especially since they experimented there with the early barbaric type shock treatments and other forms of solitary confinement (in those tunnels, below ground).  Hubby's grandmother told me stories from when she worked there that were horrid, but they really thought they were doing good then.  Lobotomies, that type of thing.

It used to be a beautiful working farm as recent as the early 1990's.  In the midst of all the old beautiful buildings and grounds, they threw up a modern-looking structure with square, steel lines that looks so cold, uncaring, and sterile.  The new building is hideous among the tranquil setting.

They have security patrolling 24/7 since they do house criminally insane, some doing their prison time as patients there instead of in prisons.  We have two large medium-security prisons about ten miles down the road the other direction, and a lot end up here.  Most of this end of the state's sheriff's departments bring prisoners who are ordered 3 day evaluations there, and some large local mental health outpatient centers practice within the facility and do short-term inpatient treatment there.  Due to the risk of people trying to jailbreak, it is very restricted access these days, along with the liability assumed by the state for those prowling wanting to do ghost-hunting in the dangerous condemned old buildings.  People have a hard time just trying to visit the cemeteries there now.  And the recent rash of Pokémon players wandering the grounds caused another lockdown over there.

Poor black and white kitty ran onto the front lawn section of the place.  It is acres of large oak trees and beautifully manicured lawn.  I'm hoping he is fine, old enough to fend on his own, and makes it to one of the condemned buildings full of mice.  If he kept going the direction he was running, at least it was away from the four lane highway I turned on to. 

It wouldn't do me any good to go ask their security folks...they are very hateful and won't do anything for people.  They are rude to genealogists that go there to look in the cemeteries and family that come there to visit their loved ones.  Ugh.

I do know there is a large feral colony on the grounds, probably feasting off of the rat/mice population in all the great old condemned buildings.  I've seen as many as thirty cats sitting on one of the patios--or what used to be a patio--outside one of the buildings.

Mamanyt1953 said:

 
Generally, mental facilities.  I worked at one for awhile.  You COULD get on if you were visiting a patient, or had business, but you definitely had to go through an armed guard, and there was only one road onto and off of the campus.

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You guessed it!

Ondine said:

 
Depending on how far away from "home" the faciilty is, your kitty may find his way back.

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It's about a mile, maybe a mile and a half from where he jumped from the undercarriage of the car.  He may very well try to get back.  I fear more about coyotes, foxes, and roaming dogs.  We have a lot of all three.

hbunny said:

 
You guessed it!

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Contact the hospital.  They are very often accomodating about things like that.  It may be that you could drop off a trap, and then come back and check it, or they may even check it for you, and call if they get him.

Meanwhile, try to stop beating yourself up over this.  You have done everything you knew to do to prevent something like this, AND you've done what you knew to do when it happened.  No matter how careful we are, cats are sly little devils, and can get around us in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't ask the security people.   I'd call administration and hope to speak to a cat-loving secretary.  

Well, after many calls/emails/texts yesterday evening, ended up I found I knew a lady that works in the admin building.  She said more than likely they wouldn't do anything to help find the cat, especially if it involved going away from their jobs and making a special "look" for it,  but she was going to tell her coworkers to be on the lookout.  She said that at least they leave the colony over there alone and let them live and do their thing without running them off, so at least that's encouraging.

I did make several loops before I went home yesterday evening (hoping I wouldn't get escorted off the property) and didn't see it anywhere, and it wasn't dead in the road or in the ditches next to the road.  I did have to go and do that for my own peace of mind.  I looked in the weeds/ditches next to the main road it ran across just in case it ran there and collapsed.

I am still just very upset.  I hate to say this, but probably more so than if I had seen a dead adult cat on the road.  Babies of any animal species are my weakness

I'd put up lost posters (with Reward in large letters) and keep looking in the area. Just because he ran off in one direction doesn't mean he's still there. He may have wandered. Can you set a trap for him and hope for the best?

I can't set a trap, due to the location.  The entire area is off limits, and I would probably get arrested if I tried.  They truly do prosecute trespassers to the fullest extent.  The state owns both sides of the road, extensive acreage...and they patrol regularly.  They are dead serious about the trespassing thing.  Across from this is a National Guard Armory that is fenced and it's no trespassing too, and next to that is Walmart.  I can probably put up posters at Walmart, which is at the intersection of my road and that main road.  I will do that tonight.  I know they have bulletin boards just inside the doors.

Here is a pic of right where he bailed out from under the car--those two huge buildings on the right, that is where he headed.  Those are the abandoned buildings on their campus.  I was almost parallel to them (about where the 18 wheeler is) when he bailed.  I checked those ditches behind the guard rails last evening but I was leery about even stopping and walking onto the property even just that far.

Unfortunately, those buildings cannot be accessed from the main road you see...here is a pic from a side road, and you have to wind around through their campus to get over to those buildings.  About the only way I could go check would be to go all-out ninja at night and sneak in--which would be a very bad thing to get caught doing!  Below that is a pic of the main building, the one I think is just fantabulous in design.  It's pretty far away from where he bailed though.

Once you have done all you can, you have done all you can.  It is that simple.  Do what you can without getting yourself arrested, perhaps notify the local shelters of what happened, just in case, then forgive yourself (because even though it wasn't your fault, you are still taking the blame), and just...send good thoughts for him into the universe.  And rest.

I don't mean set a trap on the hospital grounds, but on the edge of your property nearest the hospital.  He may have travelled back toward your home.  Who knows.  Also you can put out pet Amber alerts via these lost pets web sites.   I got a phone call for missing cats several times in the past month and I always keep my eyes peeled.  I hate it when animals are lost.  I don't care much for dogs but I don't want them to be lost either.