Adopting 3 Black cats and bringing them home 🐈‍⬛

We found 3 black cats and wanted to bring them home. Black cats normally spawn near witch huts in swamps. I have no idea what happened to the witch, I never saw her maybe she despawned. At the start we were at this one village, below it was the end portal and my nether portal. We couldn’t bring them through the portal, I was worried they despawn. We used boats to get back and I had to use leads just in case they scurried off. We have way too many cats now lol.