As a new mother Mister Mittens used to get kicked out of my house several times a day before I learned about litter boxes. She would go over a fence to go see her her feral cat buddies (her mother is still around as of early April) but she never ran off for long - she would cry and scratch to get into the door to nurse her kittens.
After a day or so when I got the cats out of the super-heated garage (it was 100 degrees last July and about 115 in the garage) the momcat wasn't so "street" anymore.
But I'm backtracking.
1/8 Poles's kindness to the Momcat had her at my front stoop when she was in labor, in a jam, and due. My wife took her in and immediately understood that the cat was going to give birth. Moms and Granmas like my wife know these things - old simple male dorks like me are clueless.
The Momcat gets a blanket and put outside next to my front stoop while she gives birth. In the morning my wife goes to work and my son goes to jail.
As an old Marine I understand that the Momcat's position is not good for defense - the front yard no longer has a fence and the street is wide open while she is nursing and exposed to anything that might walk by. I try to take her kittens from her to take them to a safer place but Mister Mittens goes hissy and clawy and lays out teeth. No good unless you want to be wounded. It's a hundred degrees out.
A couple of hours later I figure the Momcat might be hungry so I bring out a can of Bumblebee Tuna and give her a sniff. She has been into the house before with my son and I get her around to side door and into the house. She is hungry. I have a plan and shut the door. I race out the front door with a dust pan and collect the four kittens. I take them out to the garage and lay them on a nice blanket.
The new Mom comes out and races to where she gave birth and cannot find her kittens. She doesn't panic and she doesn't make a sound. She walks around the front yard until she gets by the driveway. The house doesn't lean out into the driveway she catches a scent. She races up the driveway and into the garage like a blur and ties up with her kittens on the blanket.
Later in the day all of the cats are gone I thought - the blanket is bare and Mister Mittens has run off with her kittens one by one by the scruff to a better place. OK by me, I tried my best to help her out but no. The Momcat is cramped into a back corner of the garage with lots of stuff around her while she nurses in cramped quarters. She knew how to lay up with her kittens away from people and predators. Moms always know.
Two young kittens got adopted and two stayed - we even kept the feral street slut girl.