Missing cat - new kittens

[Pennina]

I'm in a pickle. Here's the tale:

We took in stray mum and 4 kittens about 4 weeks ago. She lived in our barn at our stables located 30 mins from us. The barn was due to be filled with newly cut hay - lots of noisy tractors and huge stacks of hay on conveyors etc - and we were worried they'd get killed/hurt so took them home.

Kittens were weaned, Mum in heat so got her neutered and she's now back at stables, happy and in her old stable cat routine.

Kittens now 11 weeks and I've homed 2 to a lovely home.

We've two mature cats at home. Mother and daughter aged 7 and 6. We adore them. The Mum is fine with the kittens but Daughter not so and started to stay out a lot more.

My kids want to keep the other two. I'm ok with this, not thrilled but as a very experienced cat family I'm ok with having 4 cats.

The problem I have is that Daughter has basically moved out. She pops back every third day for s feed. Very affectionate but then goes again. No idea where she goes - have spoken to neighbours - no leads, she just goes.

Should i rehome the kittens?! Will Daughter come back. So devastated- I miss her and would never want to effectively swap her for the kittens.

Suggestions appreciated.

I think you know the answer, don't you? You owe it to your original cat to rehome the kittens. She is clearly unhappy with them being there and isn't going to accept them. It's a tough call and the kids will probably be upset at first, but surely it's a life lesson for them too - you have to do the right thing by your cat!

I wonder if she'll come back though. I might return them to stables (they can live in tack room with cat flap) if I can get early neuter and see if she returns. I feel I've lost her. I almost didn't notice that happening as she wasn't aggressive the kittens but just ignored them. It was so very hot and I just thought she was staying out in the cool garden and then I realised that I washing seeing so of her and then suddenly she didn't come home. No sign of her and my local neighbourhood and none of my neighbours near or far have seen her. I'm so sad on every level.

She's just come home! I'm going to order a tracker for her.

Lots of extra cuddles and treats

What sort of tracker are you going for?
Could you up the quality of food and make a real fuss of her? Are the kittens bothering her or is it just that they are breathing there?

Has she been done? My neighbours cat hated kittens she moved in with me when her owner got more but she had a traumatic pregnancy and birth I think the kittens freaked her out

Primula cheese spread will keep her close to home!! My dgm's cat used to sit meowing at the fridge for it - she was a stray initially but stopped wandering - mix of the cheese and love!!

Feliway the hell out the place too

Lots of dreamies and a dabird

Thank you all! She's neutered- we've had her since birth. We'll see how things go for a week and if they don't settle down we'll take the kittens back to the stables where they'll be looked after well and we'll also still see them. It also makes sense as they'll be looked after with more people around while we go on holiday in August too. May try again with them. Our girl is the priority though. She's not aggressive with the kittens - just hisses a bit.

She sounds unsure of them

Have you tried a feliway friends plug in? They sell them on Amazon. Might be worth a try. We had trackers for our cats, we used pod 2 and tabcat loc8tor. Both have limitations but did help us to find our common senseless cat when she climbed in a car engine! Good luck xxx