Four Months Today

For four months I've been hoping our feral cat MaMa would return, but so far she hasn't showed up. As I've mentioned before, she ran off when workmen came in the backyard to do slab work. I still receive phone calls and within the last two weeks I checked out two possible sightings, but the cats I saw weren't MaMa.

MaMa lived in our yard for nine years and during that time we had other workmen in the yard and she never ran off. That's why I feel pretty confident that she probably hid under the deck when she heard them and then panicked when they starting pulling up the boards.

I just feel so bad for her. I wanted her to live out her days peacefully in our yard where she was safe.

The life of a feral cat is never easy. I had no idea there were so many out there, but I've spoken to quite a few people that are feeding them just within a half mile of my house.

I read on a website that if your cat is missing you should continue to put out food. In fact, they said to put out a kitty buffet in hopes the food will attract other cats and your cat will follow those cats back. It sounded like a plan, so I continued to put food out. I now have another feral cat living under the deck with her four kittens. At first I felt guilty continuing to feed her, but my son reminded me that she was hungry too. And I'm also hoping that someone is feeding MaMa for me.

I'm planning to try and catch this mother cat and have her fixed like we did with MaMa. She can live in the backyard and if MaMa comes back they can be companions. MaMa always enjoyed the company of neighborhood cats. If we can tame the kittens it's possible they can be put up for adoption, but it might already be too late.