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Announcements Mar 27, 2026 at 4:24 AM

I “saved” a kitten two years ago at work, and its mother immediately came looking for it the following day. My heart still aches.

Posted by pigeonwithhat

This was in 2024, I work as a mechanic in a shop. Pretty dangerous. Pretty dirty. No place for an animal, especially a young one. Coworkers find an orange tabby around 2-3 months old, he’s filthy but still healthy and friendly. Coworkers talk about raccoons that sneak into the shop at night foraging. They believe raccoons would definitely kill this kitten if left alone at night. I wait a few hours, cat mom never shows up. End of the work day and I have to decide. I opt to taking the kitten, and immediately find it a home with a friend because I couldn’t house it myself. I come back the next day, and cat mom is there!!!! She’s so confused. Looking everywhere, even coming near us when she usually never does. She’s very worried. and I feel this guilt that isn’t gnawing, but comes back every several months and I feel so bad. I just saw her again tonight, wandering around the grounds, which prompted me to make this. I don’t need advice or anything, I know I did the correct thing at the time, but I feel so bad for mom not knowing where her baby went. At least he’s in a very loving home now.
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38 Comments

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andjeffries Mar 27, 2026 +605
Take the mom home with you and make a TikTok reuniting them. You’ll go viral in no time.
605
sintaur Mar 27, 2026 +139
Then the other kittens in the litter will starve to death or get eaten. Catch mom in a couple months and spay her, give her a home if you can.
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philman132 Mar 27, 2026 +77
Its been 2 years according to the post. So I assume the litter will have all grown up now!
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LiteraryPhantom Mar 27, 2026 +33
2 years?? That momma cat is a great great great granmomma cat by now. 😂😂😂
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_Rue_the_Day_ Mar 27, 2026 +14
Feral cats can have litters 2-3 litters a year. Some even 5! The chances she has a litter hidden right now are high.
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andjeffries Mar 27, 2026 +1
Take all of them home too!
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seeseecinnamon Mar 27, 2026 +1
Then make a tik too with too loud music, and your face in the corner reacting to everything in the video. 
1
FriendlySalesman Mar 27, 2026
That TikTok reunion idea sounds purr-fectly dramatic and would definitely get those likes rolling in!
0
CinderVortexzy14 Mar 27, 2026 +2
Yeah, cause stealing two cats sounds like a great plan. Maybe I should just start my own feline sanctuary lol. In all seriousness though, kinda hard when she probs has a whole gaggle of kittens somewhere... and my apartments strict on no more pets!
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SuzCoffeeBean Mar 27, 2026 +221
Please don’t ever feel bad. A couple more months max & they would have broken from that bond anyway. You did a really nice thing.
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Classic_Wrangler3090 Mar 27, 2026 +80
Exactly this. The guilt is proof it was done with care, not carelessness.
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PotentialDifficult62 Mar 27, 2026 +7
That's the best comment here ❤️. What a cool thing to say.
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monkeyluvz Mar 27, 2026 +21
This. My cat's mom came back too but you know what? I'm not sure how long mom (and the sibling she had with her when I took my cats) lived beyond that point but my cat's are 13 years old and healthy. According to Google, 2-3 years is the average lifespan of a feral cat.
21
Comeback_321 Mar 27, 2026 +77
Can you get the momma a home or at least get her fixed?
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pigeonwithhat Mar 27, 2026 +78
Ah man, she seems to despise us lol. Besides that one time when she was looking for her kitten, she completely avoids any contact with people. If you try approaching her, she’s gone.
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CinnamonGirl123 Mar 27, 2026 +56
You’ll have to trap her. Please try to do that to end the kitten cycle. It’s not that hard to do. You just start feeding her in the trap and push the food farther in each day until it’s at the back. It may take a week or so but eventually she’ll go in all the way and get trapped. There should be a low cost spay/neuter clinic near you that will fix her and vaccinate her.
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pigeonwithhat Mar 27, 2026 +26
I would love to have done that already, I’m just seriously super busy most of the time and finish late at night. The grounds are pretty huge, she could be anywhere tbh and I rarely ever see her. there’s also other cats around the grounds that (maybe?) interact with each other and move around, so I might inadvertently end up catching one of them lol. But I will try though.
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EetsGeets Mar 27, 2026 +39
it would still be a good thing if you caught a different cat lol
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CinnamonGirl123 Mar 27, 2026 +19
If you start feeding the mom cat regularly and get her in a routine, she’ll keep coming to eat. You could start feeding where you see her and the other cats too. Is someone feeding them there? If thinking there must be if they hang out there. There may ne a local rescue group who is already involved or who can help out with all of it. Are you in the USS? What is the city and town? I’ll see if I can find a rescue group willing to help.
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Tntn13 Mar 27, 2026 +8
A lot of local animal control places have catch and release programs, and stray cats are a big problem. If you have the time to talk to em about it a lot of them will provide traps, some will even come out and set them up with permission. In case you’re interested in that. I could understand not wanting to be in charge of the trapping if you’re busy.
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Comeback_321 Mar 27, 2026 +3
Contact a local rescue so they can set up and monitor the trap 
3
Fragrant_Builder9296 Mar 27, 2026 +31
that’s really sad, but you didn’t do anything wrong. you made the best choice with the info you had, and you gave that kitten a safe life. the guilt just means you care.
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Synicizym Mar 27, 2026 +9
We had a gaggle of shop kittens at the warehouse. Started with one and before I knew it, there were the mom and the dad and 5 kittens and a second mom. Never could keep them all the way straight from each other as they were predominantly white. Such a heartbreaking sight to watch them all graze(neighbors fed them) whilst we left for the last time. I know of one baby that got “abducted” by a passing driver. Tho I feel for them and wish them to be as well off as possible, I know to a certain extent at a house/home with someone that will love them is what’s best for them, street life is rough and I look at my rescue, my fiacee’s rescue and our rescue and remember they have the best life we could afford them instead of them scrounging for scraps and getting into scraps with other bigger cats. On the flip side, we have another shop kitty that is very wary but seemingly well taken care of. And there’s two other cats at a brewery two blocks away. Who are well loved by the patrons and owners, and another warehouse/company that has two or three of our shop kitty’s siblings that are fed and given water daily. Of course the heart pangs and other feelings suck and are valid, but the more interaction cats have with humans the better off they are (in general) and giving the baby to a caring home is still a much better result than street life for a kitten
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Nick-C-DuFae Mar 27, 2026 +15
Don't be sad. Cats reproduce quickly, especially the feral ones... They can have multiple litters every year and sometimes the babies die or get lost. Mother cats are even known to kidnap kittens from different litters... Sometimes the mom just straight up eats them. If the kitten was a few months old, there's a good chance he was already weened or pretty close to it. Now he's a beloved pet instead of another feral tom cat breeding repeatedly.
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maceilean Mar 27, 2026 +6
Aww man that's sad. Yeah momma cats need to leave for extended time to find food and whatnot. I think you're supposed to wait a couple of days. On the plus side that kitten will definitely have a better life and momma cat will likely have more litters.
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AwesomeCartoonist Mar 27, 2026 +6
That's such a bittersweet story. It sounds like you really did the right thing for the kitten's safety, even if the mom's reaction was heartbreaking to see.
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Pumpkkinnn Mar 27, 2026 +4
Don’t feel bad. Cats sometimes store their kittens near car engines to keep warm. That goes really badly when the cars start moving.  You could have saved that kittens life. If you can trap the mom and give her to a shelter that would be great. But fr, don’t feel bad.
4
lowfreq33 Mar 27, 2026 +10
Dude, animals kill their babies all the time. Yes, cats, especially if they’re feral. There’s no right or wrong here. Either you do nothing and allow nature to take its course, whatever that may be, or you get a cute kitten a home and that’s ok too.
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OwnActive Mar 28, 2026 +3
You did the best you could with the information you had at the time! I’m sure that kitten is in a wonderful place now 🩷
3
richard_hall613 Mar 27, 2026 +2
If you see the mom again, try to get some food and water out for her, so she sticks around. And honestly, have a plan for getting both the kitten and the mom to a safer place together, like a local shelter or a kind person willing to help.
2
CinnamonGirl123 Mar 27, 2026 +3
That’s so sad! You should have rescued her too and reunited then. Did you ever get the mom cat fixed? If not, please do that or she’ll keep having kittens. Thanks for rescuing.
3
Pantherdraws Mar 27, 2026 +2
If it's any consolation, at 2-3 months old the kitten would have already been weaned and a prime candidate for rehoming anyway. Yeah, mama cat probably wondered where he went at first, but it wouldn't have caused her any undue distress. Has mama cat been caught and spayed since? There are a lot of small orgs that will TNR feral cats for low cost or even for free, to prevent them from adding to the feral cat population.
2
doctordaedalus Mar 27, 2026 +1
Well you know what you've gotta do. It's your cat now. Find the rest of those kittens.
1
seplive2002 Mar 27, 2026 +1
Kittens are life
1
Plastic_Grab6710 Mar 27, 2026 +1
Man, that's a tough realization to sit with. The thing is, you couldn't have known. Kittens left alone LOOK abandoned, that's just how it works when
1
Unlikely-Sky6935 Mar 27, 2026 +1
🥲
1
Successful-Bug-8278 Mar 28, 2026 +1
You are the cat king!
1
spark_types950 Mar 28, 2026 +1
That's rough. But at least the kitten's mom found it.
1
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