We have a little notch eared tuxedo with one blind eye that ignores the name “Doc” but comes running from a hundred yards to the psp psp psp sound rendered as a high pitched whistle.
Doc digs chin and ear rubs but he’s not into laps, he likes company, hangs out next to your chair as long as you’re outside.
He lets us feed him mornings and nights and has a ‘cat condo’ house on the back porch along with various neighbor barns and porches he shelters and hunts in.
He hunts rabbits or thinks he does along the back fence.I’ve watched him do a long stalk, creeping from cover to cover trying too sneak up on the intended prey who sit unworried, munching our flowers or strawberries.Doc finally gets close, quivering in anticipation , makes his final rush aaaand the rabbits evade him effortlessly until he finally quits and drags his butt back to sit with us.
Our place is definitely his territory at least as far back as the shed and berry patch and around the back porch.
He defends it against interlopers 2-3 times his size with fierce yowls, blown up fur and hell for leather charges that put his opponents to flight.
He started hanging around the summer of ‘18, sitting with us out back, helping dig when we planted flowers, following us around supervising the gardening and yard work.
He also likes to watch us through the basement windows, following us from window to window.
He helps on grocery or flea market days by getting in the car and inspecting all packages and bags.
We tried him as an indoor/outdoor cat but he’s too feral, he wouldn’t confine himself to a litter box and if there’s any food he can reach is his, tables, counters, your fork...
He eats like a food processor grunting and chewing, snarf, nom, crunch, gulp...dropping food every where..
Anyway, a couple times a year he just takes off for an adventure and shows up, dirty and skinny, a few days or weeks later.So don’t lose hope.
My two 3/4 grown cats would hunt rabbits as a team and catch them too. After a year or two the dark tabby disappeared but I found his body a few days later in the woods with blood on it. He was probably hit by a car. Not long after the blond tabby also disappeared but was never seen again. This was in the suburbs.
On the other hand I found a beautiful Russian Blue kitten with a nice collar. No one ever claimed him. When grown he would push out the back door and then push his way in again the same or next day. We had to go away for 2 and 3 days at a time and he would come back, but after a while he came back less often and finally not at all. Think he found a better feed lot down the alley because several years later I saw a beautiful young offspring Russian Blue. This was in the city. So, sometimes hope is rewarded and sometimes not.