Will colony cats miss the rescued/trapped friends?

[Antonio65]

I recently discovered the presence of a new cat colony less than half a mile from my home. It was mid November when I saw a mom cat with her three small kittens in the parking lot of a restaurant along a heavy traffic road. I stopped, took some photos, rescued one of the kittens and took her to the local vet where they treated her sore eyes. Now that tiny kitten is on my lap, while I'm typing, licking my fingers and purring loudly. She's one of the sweetest cats I've ever seen

The next day I returned to the spot and found out that the cats are at least 12, of all ages.
As per our rules, I reported the presence of these cats to our local police and to the relevant public health office, which sent a veterinarian over to take a survey and issue a report in order that the female cats in the colony will be spayed on the county council expenses. The health office also chose me as the contact person for the colony (so now I'm in charge of two colonies!), and my duty and task is to trap the cats and have them fixed.

A few days later I managed to rescue the other two kittens I saw on the first day, and I was even able to find a home for them. They are two wonderful kittens, it only took a couple of hours to find two good homes for them two.
In the last two days I trapped 7 adult cats from that colony, and they are now on the waiting list at the vets' for spaying and neutering. I should return the fixed cats to their territory, but it seems they are all very quiet cats (and very beautiful too), it is possible that they will all find a family too.
Now at the colony only 4 or 5 cats remain.

My concern now is... I wonder whether these remaining cats miss the ones I rescued on these past two days.
Will they suffer and feel sad for the absence of their friends? All of a sudden a good number of them disappeared. What might they think? Could they be scared and leave?
I can understand that if one or two are missing, the others may not realize, but more than half of them have gone in a few hours, this must be distressful.
Any thought?

 

[Furballsmom]

They'll notice, but as to actually missing them it depends quite a lot on the personality of the remaining cats. Bless your heart for helping them!

 

[FeebysOwner]

If they all are able to find homes, I would guess it won't take long for them to forget their past and be happy with their new lives!! That is what I am hoping for anyway!

 

[Antonio65]

If they all are able to find homes, I would guess it won't take long for them to forget their past and be happy with their new lives!! That is what I am hoping for anyway!

Yes, but my concern is for the remaining cats, not for the rescued ones.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Yes, but my concern is for the remaining cats, not for the rescued ones.

Isn't your plan to rescue them all? That is what I meant, in that they may wonder what is going on right this moment, but with any luck once you have rescued them all, they will be able to move on to better lives and leave those days behind. (I am a dreamer, sorry.)

 

[Antonio65]

Isn't your plan to rescue them all? That is what I meant, in that they may wonder what is going on right this moment, but with any luck once you have rescued them all, they will be able to move on to better lives and leave those days behind. (I am a dreamer, sorry.)

The remaining cats are on hold at the moment, because there's no more room for them where the others are kept before the scheduled surgeries. It might be a couple of weeks before I'm able to rescue the few others, so I was thinking about what they feel now.
Hopefully, once they are all rescued, they will forget these terrible years in the cold and with little food available.

 

[Sean35]

I would imagine that the lessened competition for food would outweigh the loss of social interaction.

 

[fionasmom]

You are once again doing a wonderful thing for cats....and for better or worse in charge of another colony. My experiences with cats has been different, including the ones that I own who are indoor only. With the exception of a few bonded pairs over the years, and the majority were not in that category, no one seemed to care much if one passed away or, in the case of an outdoor feral colony, was lost for another reason. Now I don't know your cats, but I have not ever noticed a lot of cat angst when some were no longer around. Everyone seemed to get on with their lives or be actually relieved that there were less in line for meals. To be honest, it was more like "he's in a better place, now let me have his dish."

 

[Jcatbird]

I do like what fionasmom said.I think all colony rescuers question these things. I was fortunate to be in a position to observe closely. Yes, it is a bit like a large family BUT.... For the colonies here, many were less stressed when competition was less and resources became more available. I found that true for most. The colony leader of my last colony actually brought the last female and kittens to me while remaining completely by himself for awhile. ( It’s tough to be top cat and provider or protector in nature!) He had watched as I removed the other colony members and I can only imagine that he understood that I was helping , rather than harming them. When he brought his bonded female to me he left her and kittens ( his) at my back door and walked away. Some months later he finally stopped evading me and voluntarily followed me home, entered my back door and, although frightened, surrendered himself to being indoors. It took time to get him neutered and vet care but when I had him cleared to join the ones that had not been adopted, he was reunited with his mate and a few other of the females from the colony. They did remember each other and the bond remained. I can say that this can go both ways. Some do better being the only cat in an adopted home and some remain bonded but all here adjusted. I feel all did well as cats were removed but I do know that BJ and Flowers were very sweet together when they reunited. Cats are very smart. They understand survival better than we do. For them it often means their kittens grow away from them as they get old enough to survive outside the colony. They know some are lost to nature. New colonies can be formed as kittens nature and leave. They follow the resources If they can and do not crowd out the others to the point of starvation. Yes, you can have strongly bonded kitties but I think you will be able to notice this in any that are not adopted. I suspect the ones still remaining are curious, watching, learning and perhaps just awaiting their turn. In the meantime, they have more food, space and less stress on the colony. No competition for mating or food, less risk of sharing illness. You are doing the very best thing for them all. They will be living much better lives now. Give the little kitten a pet from us! Sending purrs to you!

 

[Antonio65]

Thanks everybody, the last two posts brought some tears to my eyes, they are so sweet.

I (too) often think that cats have similar thoughts and mental schemes as us, when I should keep in mind that they live on insticts that evolved for thousands of years to allow them to withstand to the wild and rough out there.

 

[Antonio65]

Got to trap another cat of this colony yesterday. Now only two cats remain, one is about 5-6 months old, the other one is about 3 months old.
They're all alone now, and I think they did witness the trapping of the others. So now they are scared both by the loniless and the trapping scenes. I hope to trap them two soon as well, and save them from that life of cold and misery, but from what I have seen in these past days, these two kittens are really smart. I fear they won't go into the trap and live in fear and loneliness

 

[Furballsmom]

Try super smelly things that are yummy for cats and hang in there, you're doing an awesome job!

 

[Antonio65]

Try super smelly things that are yummy for cats and hang in there, you're doing an awesome job!

Actually I found out that they are more attracted by the junk canned food that a person is feeding them. The super smelly tuna fish I tried went quite unnoticed. The cat I trapped yesterday walked into the trap only when I replaced the tuna fish with the same junk food they are used to.

 

[Furballsmom]

Good for you to notice! Can you talk to the other person and ask them to refrain from feeding for a little while? That should help with your two little ones so they're hungry enough for the food in your trap.

 

[Antonio65]

Good for you to notice! Can you talk to the other person and ask them to refrain from feeding for a little while? That should help with your two little ones so they're hungry enough for the food in your trap.

Yes, on the day before I am planning to try and trap one or more cats, I always ask the person not to feed them for about 24 hours. So far it worked fine, but those two kittens I mentioned two posts earlier seem not to be fooled by the trick.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hang in there, they're tough little smarties, but your patience will be rewarded!

 

[Whenallhellbreakslose]

I have to say that cats do develop some strong bonds with each other, but I also seen cats get over a friend leaving the group.

One female cat in one of my groups took it very hard when her BFF (a Male cat) got sick and died. She got sick herself and wandered off. Not long after that she started coming to me on the weekends. Then she stopped coming into my yard no matter how I tried to lure her in. Then the time came when she stopped visiting altogether. I seen her a few times since --she looks fine. It is obvious that someone has been taking care of her. If she is happy, then I am happy. I wish her well. The other cats in the group were stressed over the absence of their friends, but they got over it. Cats are very resilient as well. This is what I observed from being a cat caretaker.