Cats are such amazing creatures. Many people think of them as unfeeling and/or aloof, but when they pick their favorite human, they love them with all they have. My condolences on the passing of your father and your sweet kitty.

We’ve tried everything but a drop trap. Trouble is, we’re in a building complex with fairly limited area that the trap would potentially scare off the entire colony for good. She’s a very cautious one generally. The already neutered ones take the bait all the time!

A fishing net trapping may work, but I can’t find any with a zipper at the bottom. Those exist, or perhaps existed so I’m keeping an eye out for one online. Once caught, a local cat rescue will take care of the rest (they helped find homes for her many kittens in the past).

Poor kitty. 🙁 Yeah, cats definitely grieve the loss of their fellow felines, and a mother’s grief transcends any species-specific borders. You could ask your local animal shelter or Humane Society if they have any humane traps that you could catch her with. Otherwise, there’s got to be something online where it teaches you how to make your own humane traps.

Later on in early 2016 and the summer, she got pregnant twice. However, whatever injuries she sustained prevents her from giving birth properly. During the summer incident in particular, we could see her nearly wet all over but clearly in some discomfort. After both ordeals, she was visibly sad and very communal with the others in the colony (she’s feisty otherwise). She even let me and my neighbor get very close to her, and chirps as if she’s calling to her kittens. With it, there was some weight loss.

She’s pregnant now for the third time so we’ll see how it goes. The shed has fresh hay in it so perhaps she’d choose it to give birth and perhaps we’ll finally catch her after nearly 8 years.