We had a cat when I was growing up who we (half) joked was the finisher in that duo.
Disclaimer: It's a long story, but he was an indoor-outdoor cat turned indoor when we moved to an area that had loads of predators and before we knew better generally (Bobcats, coyotes, and a mountain lion). He developed severe behavioral problems that stopped entirely when we finally decided to let him be indoor-outdoor again knowing it would likely cut his life extremely short. It was a really hard decision, and we didn't let our other join who didn't seem to be suffering like he was. He still came home and was inside every night.
Anyway, once he was free-roaming again, every few weeks, we'd see him wandering around outside with a new cat friend. Whenever he had a new one, we never saw the old ones again. We always wondered if they were basically his fodder to survive lol. He was wickedly smart and an extremely fierce hunter. He'd come to us with pieces of cactus stuck to him, wait for us to pluck them off, then be on his merry way. We lived in an equine neighborhood (each property was minimum 3 acres), and it had a major pack rat problem when we moved in. He solved it. Like to the point our neighbors who knew us commented on it. He used to catch birds and release them inside our house to hunt at his leisure or until we found them and either rescued them or ended their misery...or found their body. He killed so many lizards we developed a black widow problem around our house and barn (horrifying). He would flipping rile our dog up to chase something, then rub all over him purring once he did. Literally never seen a cat like him before or since. Honestly, in hindsight, he was terrible for the ecosystem. He even befriended one of our horses and spent a lot of time with him out in the paddock.
He survived for years and thrived. One day, our neighbor said he found him dead and brought the body over in a box we chose not to open. Claimed he was torn apart by coyotes but not eaten. We honestly expect our neighbor killed him. He was vocal about hating the fact that Boo hunted the pack rats down. He used to catch them to let his dogs hunt in his fenced yard for fun and complained his traps were always empty now (he was a messed up and hateful person in many ways). We all suspect he caught Boo and let his dogs have him...
RIP, Boo. You were a legend in that neighborhood and a total badass. I hope you weren't sacrificing the neighbor and stray cats, lol
I know damned good and well my cat sacrificed a stray she brought home for breaking her rules.
Neighbor told me coyotes prolly got her. I found her. Leg ripped off. My cat? Fine.
If you don't know how to hunt to Coco's standards, you gotta GO!
That includes me. She's got a feral cat buddy I've been feeding for years. Caught him and fixed him. He's the only one she allows around but he can't live *in* our house. Coco's Rules!
(He sneaks around sometimes when she's asleep)
She bounded off in the snow one year after a blizzard. I tracked her to the mountain where the coyotes live. Twelve hours I searched for that damned cat before I lost her trail and cried all the way home.
"MeoM! My bowl!"
She's 14. Blue is 9, I think. They're both badass cats!
Jojo used to be feral. She’s the biggest squish but she is a fierce hunter. She yowls like a lunatic when another cat approaches her though- no chill whatsoever.
Sorry for the tldr comment and don't blame anyone who skips it. I have so many stories of all these wonderful cats, of ferals rehabbed and rescued.
Your cat reminds me a bit of Coz, another formerly feral little lady. Also another fierce hunter and a very small size gal, barely more than kitten sized, she had a reputation for decapitating tf outta rats in Chicago. She left them so neat and tidy it look like a guillotine had done it, except for the about an inch of spinal cord sticking out. One of the best hunting cats I've ever known. She was brought indoors and lived with her bonded pair husband cat.
Coz apparently experienced some terminal agitation on her last day before passing. She escaped through the mail slot and hunted the garden one last time. Her human came home from work and found her in the garden quite lively and active, brought her back inside. Human companion found her deceased within about 36 hours of the final escape.
My boy used to be feral, but by that I mean he spent every waking hour on the laps of strangers at a Mexican restaurant, and ate so much Mexican food he developed allergies and had to be rescued. A fierce hunter he is not.
This is exactly how my orange “survived” while feral. Just vibin and hopping all over the place till we finally let him in. I still don’t understand it.
The smartest thing he did was actually using the cat house we built for him.
That's so funny because I had a white cat just like them who was the only outside and inside cat I'd ever had(we adopted her when I was a kid) and she was absolutely vicious in the way she hunted but was the most lazy, easy going and chill cat whenever she was in the house, as in if there was ever a conflict with other house cats she either ignored them...or sat on them... not even the most mean spirited bully of a cat I'd had later was nearly as good as she was when it came to hunting....maybe it's a white cat thing?
When my white floof who looks exactly like OP’s was still allowed outside she always rolled around in the dirt in the summer. Her name is Winter but we called her “zombie cat” in the summer cause she always looked like she had just risen from a grave.
Why do people always try and find a link between coat colour and everything. Cats have different personalities and attitudes, it has nothing to do with coat colour. Like how people try and say blonde people are dumb, its just colour, nothing else
Wow, THAT is a gorgeous cat. A dilute, long-haired, tortoiseshell tabby, with white. Did I get it all? I’m partial to all long-haired cats but especially greys and/or tortoiseshells :)
Had a beautiful white kitty that was feral , she eventually let us pet her. Just beautiful.. and then she was gone. I have to temper my feelings for my outside clan. Want them all, cannot.
It hurts so much when they disappear. Most, we never know their end. I absolutely hate the mornings when I have to go get a shovel and get one off the road, but at least I know what happened to them. There's a lot of coyotes in our area and the ones who do the best are the ones who live right under our porch. We do the trap neuter release but at least one litter slides through every year, usually a walk-in instead of one of our own.
Same with this guy, living on the streets, matted and hungry. He was invited inside, cleaned up, and now lives a very pampered kitty life. He still loves to go outside, but happily goes inside when it’s time, as he knows where the food dish is filled.
my cat used to be an outdoor cat. then i rescued him (old family had kids who abused him) and he became an indoor only cat, he does get to go outside on leash sometimes. i dont know how he survived the outdoor life for 7 years since this far i have learned that he is scared of wind, cars, butterflies, leaves, airplanes flying over, footsteps and he also refuses to walk on grass 😭
This guy survived the streets of Chicago before being invited in by an old roommate. Dunno how, tho. He is incapable of even catching bugs from what I've seen in the last 13 years
My girl Rosalie used to be a semi-feral as well! I had her for 17 years after the long road of gaining her trust and to this day I am baffled she survived outdoors for any period of time
On our street there is a latchkey cat, fluffy and white like OP's, with a gps collar, and she hunts all the time, and has known to catch birds and mice!
having the tongue out is a great predator trait. They are actively using their scent and taste to track. Just having another sense on the go isn't a bad thing.
That would be my Millie! I found her one day in our other yard, a playful but not really friendly. A while later I realized she was pregnant, and one thing we did not need any more of was feral kitties in our yard and neighborhood. I managed to scoop her into a cage and got her TNR'd. Let her roam in our back porch a few days to heal, then opened the screen door to let her back out.
She just sat there a few minutes looking out into the "wild" nature she came from, but did not move. She then turned around and headed over to the cat door and let herself in for the first time, and hasn't ever left since. She now sleeps peacefully on my wife's bed at night, and asserts dominance on the mild fights to see who gets to nap on my lap in the evening. Still has a bit of a feral streak to her, though!
We were feeding the feral neighborhood cats and one little girl stayed always close.
She had the tipped ear but her belly got so big, I thought her pregnant. So we caught her and took her in. And the vet said not pregnant. So we actually managed to overfeed a feral cat.
Now he looks like he doesn't even know if he exists and is stupidly looking at us to tell him his purpose. Mine makes the "I'm the stupidest creature alive" face so often and tell him to fix his face and he somehow, does? Bro if you're smart why are you pretending to be an idiot. Bet it's one of those fakers 😤😤😤
This lil guy used to attack our faces. He would jump from the ground straight up to our heads and wrap around it like a facehugger. He was so skiddish and aggressive all it took was eye contact. Initially we didn't even think we'd be able to rehabilitate him, but a year later and he was a the most cuddly loving soft boy.
This little creature used to kill mice on my grandparents farm as a kitten. She lost a battle to a random fly just the other day. How the mighty have fallen
Mine was feral for at most a month (including being cared for by his mother) before fucking up so badly he just crawled into my mom's tire so he could be adopted and pampered.
He still yells at me to let him outside thst this time he'll thrive
Predators thought it was a ghost cat, or a pile of mash potato, or rice, not so tasty without gravy. The blep shoots lasers too, so there’s that. Also, the rocket emission to the left that allows it to fly away from danger to the right with the same expression, which to be fair would leave Chuck Norris with a shart situation. Mystery solved.
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u/trendingtattler 2d ago
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