mother cat leaving her litter....

Question
my year and a half old female cat had kittens five weeks ago and she is an inside/outside cat just like the other two male cats are. we kept her and her kittens in a different room but the other night when she went outside she hasn't came back. is it normal for mother cats to runaway leaving her home and five week old kittens behind?

Answer
Hi Taz,

No it is not. There could be a couple of reasons for her to be gone. She could be in heat again and is catting around. Or, the worst case scenario, she could be seriously hurt or dead. I hope it that is not the case. You need to read these, http://www.littleshelter.com/library/cat_indoors.htm
http://www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=keepcats

Hopefully she comes home soon. Are the kittens still nursing? If they are not then there is a good chance that she is in heat. If she was nursing you need to take care of the kits. You can continue to bottle feed them or try to wean them. Here are a couple of good links that will help you.
http://www.feralcat.com/raising.html
http://www.kittenrescue.org/pages.php?pageid=15

Good luck and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Ciao, Karen