Feral at restaraunt

Hello,

I have been feeding this kitten at a local breakfast place I have been going to for a couple of years. Since then there has been several kittens and cats their, there is a hole in the wall that is their safe place . Couple of the staff over the years have taken cats their and I took in a feral almost a year ago , she got out and have not seen since even thought she was getting really comfortable in the house. My current situation is there was originally 3 kittens that were there for past few months. Now there is only one kitten left . Maybe looks to be 9 or 10 months old. Have not seen mom now for the last 2 weeks . I am assuming something happened to mom at this point...We so there is the one kitty, when I come and bring food kitty meows and meows. My feral cat never meowed nor any of the other feral cats I have seen meowed. What does this mean when the feral meows ??? I can get so far to kitty then he runs in the hole then comes out. but I can get somewhat close and talk to kitty and kitty meows. I know its hard to get a feral to become a complete normal cat....But know with patience it can happen. What is your thoughts ???

Thank you so much for your reply ! ....My one big concern of trapping and keeping is this... I did it all wrong the first time around with my Grace, the first feral cat I got last year.. I read everywhere regarding feral cats and if you trap , to get them checked at a vet first. I do have a 3.5 year old cat .  I just cant fathom how one traps a feral then the thought is you must have to have an appointment to bring in.  To me an inexperienced trapper of a feral that seems impossible...With my Grace she was trapped  and being that she was feral could not easily get her to vet, I tricked her into going into the carrier maybe 4 months later. She got all her shots, discovered she was FIV positive  and intent was for her to get neutered but the vet could not find her uterus. was a nightmare. Could not get her to the vet after that.    But Grace had warmed up to us before she accidently got out.  Any tips of trapping would be great !!

Are you using a humane trap or a cat carrier?  A humane trap is safest and easiest for feral cats.  There are some great videos to watch on how to trap.  I will add a video to the bottom of this post.

The kindest thing that could be done for the cats at the restaurant is to trap them, get them spay/neutered and then either find homes for the cats if they are social or if they are truly feral, return them to the place they were trapped.  The reproducing will stop.  New cats may still show up as it's a food source,but it would greatly help to control the kitten population.

In my area, we have low cost spay/neuter clinics that allow you to bring in a cat in a humane trap without an appointment.  They are open 4 days a week.  Drop off is between 8-10 am and then you pick the cat up later that day.  It really helps to take the pressure off of trapping.  

If that doesn't work, I would call around and find a sympathetic vet.  One who might work with you.

The video is on trapping an entire colony, but the same techniques apply to just one cat