Stumped about a feral/stray cat.

[mamabear]

Just a quick history. I have a cat that is feral/stray that lives under my porch. It has been here for years but we never knew it was living here until recently when we saw it going in and out under the deck. It has always moused and I guess eaten food people leave out.(we do not leave food out, as it will attract raccoons and coyote and other animals we dont want). "Fred" is what i call him. Well I started to see him and he has a routine every morning he goes out and hten comes back later. Well we havent seen him for a few weeks and then we noticed mice in our Living room they were coming up the steps from the basement. We caught about 5 and well its right where Fred technically would be sleeping so I can assume he isnt there.

I have mentioned him before when we had the whole urin smell in the basement and the dog was going nuts earlier in the year. (dog would go nuts at night and we didnt realize it was from teh mice and cat). I am so upset that our Fred is gone. I decided that he has done well on his own and I would not catch him and send him to the pound as I know what will happen there since he is feral. He never goes near us and does not use our back yard where we play as a toilet...He goes back further in the woods which i find to be funny.

Well here is my question....could Fred just stay under there for the winter then in spring go away ? Although I have seen him during the summer in the back yard(that was when we just thought he was the neighbords cat and didnt realize he was waiting for us to leave so he can go under the deck LOL) Could Fred be a girl and just get pregnant every year and have the babies under the deck then leave when they are old enough? If so wouldnt i have heard the babies by now or seen them?

Or am i just wishful thinking and he might just have been hit by something and not around anymore? I am not one to think the worst but I am upset that he isnt around and not because we have mice....dont really care too much about the mice right now since we've taken care of that. But wow I had no clue he was living here and now I know well I wanted to make sure he was ok and now he's gone. How sad!

Was just trying to see if maybe there was a different reason he would have left......Maybe the kids playing back there often might have done it. But hten wouldnt he come back at night? .....Jeez i hate not knowing Any suggestions?

[Tina B and crew]

Mamabear...I use to take care of feral cats at an office I worked at a couple years ago...we had several that hung around and at times they would disappear for weeks at a time and eventually come back, so it may be that he has just wandered and will be back. With the ferals it's always impossible to know...but at least he had you to care about him and his well being...where ever he is I hope he is safe...I know how hard it is to have them disappear and wonder where they are or what happened.

[Catastrophe]

He may just be on the prowl for cats in heat and as the PP suggested could come back in a few weeks!

[mamabear]

It is hard. I did nothing for him except worry once i realized he was living here. Well. I did make sure that the junk was taken out from under the deck to make sure he wasnt in danger.

Sure hope he comes back. My dh is highly allergic(um so am i but dont care about that) and we dont have cats because of this. But knowing he was there was just nice to see a kitty once in a while.

[Tambrey]

being on the prowl is the first thing I thought of as well....I am not sure, but I have heard that a male cat can smell a female in heat up to 2 miles away?

gotta go check on that one!

Prayers that Fred shows up soon and in good health!