Feral Cats

[Chama]

Hi everyone,

We have a mother cat and kitten outside of my workplace (unfortunately there were several more kittens but we believe maybe a fox got them) Unfortunately by the time I discovered the kitten, it was four months old and had no socialization with people otherwise I would have tried to adopt it out through the rescue that I foster for. We have been ensuring that they have lots of food and I managed to trap the kitten and have her spayed. We want to do the same with the mother but have been unable to trap her thus far.

We have noticed lately that the Mom hisses at the kitten (I call her a kitten but she is about six months) and won't allow her near the food while she eats. Don't get me wrong we make sure the kitten has enough food and people have seen her eating when the Mom isn't there. We are making a house for them with the winter months coming up (there is also a barn nearby) but our worry is that the Mom won't allow the kitten in the house with her. Could this be due to one being spayed and the other not being spayed? Or worst case scenario we are wondering if the mother is pregnant again and is getting more terretorial with the food? I noticed this morning that she was sleeping beside the food dish.

I know the ideal situation would be to get them into a rescue but we all know that we can't save them all and these two just aren't accustomed enough to human contact. We could bring them to animal control but worry that they will be euthanized with the overpopulation in this area and the fact that they don't allow us to handle them.

Any expertise you could provide would be appreciated.

Thanks!