While I am glad to see a white house cat, no self respecting cat would describe her or himself equal to dogs or humans, since clearly cats are the superior species.
My aunt had two cats, both nasty creatures and have me hating cats ... they are of the devil!!! A good dog like Sly though, that's the ticket!
Your aunt's cats sound awesome. Cats are domesticated, not tame. Lucia was born feral. She knows how to use a cat box but doesn't like it. She uses the great outdoors. We euphemistically call it her "little run".
We had a cat that was born feral. We lived out in the country and I found it by our barn. It's mother either abandoned it, or may have died of feline distemper since that seemed to be going around then. Anyway, we took him in, fed him formula until he was big enough to eat solid food. He never entirely got over his feral nature even though we had him from the time he was just a few days old. He would tolerate us, but didn't want more than the occasional petting, and couldn't stand to be cuddled, which was too bad because he had a lovely soft fur. We had a pet door and he spent most of his time outside. He broke one of his legs one night, no idea how, and had to have it amputated. It didn't slow him down much and he had a full, if slightly wild and detached, life.
My cats Rudy and Margot were feral all their lives. I fed them, they slept indoors in bad weather, and with difficulty I trapped them so mobile vet could spay and neuter. I never petted either until the end of their lives when they were sedated. Rudy at age 11 had a severe leg injury, a rescue group helped me trap him. He was in early renal failure, his teeth were bad, so I had him put to sleep. Margot lived past 13, a good age for any cat, let alone feral. She crawled behind the biggest bookcase. It took most of the day on the phone to find a vet who would come over. He used a hinged net to pull her out and injected her with sedative through the net. Her heart was strong, her teeth in pretty good condition, but her kidneys were gone, so he euthanized her on my floor. All my cats are rescues, but the others agreed to be my cats.
We had cats at the same time as dogs. Every one of our dogs would gladly give his life protecting our cats.
Talked to a friend a couple of days ago. She is not a cat person. She never had a cat. She saw a cat in her yard lying so still she was afraid it was dead. So she opened a can of tuna from her pantry and cat magically came to life. She got some cans of food. Now she is feeding the cat every afternoon. The cat sits by her on the couch and licks her hand. She isn't sure if the cat (either a neutered male or a female; an intact male, I explained, is obvious as soon as he lifts his tail) is someone's companion caging an extra meal or an abandoned pet. Clearly tame. I advised her to take cat to clinic, she can wait in her car while they bring cat inside, to check for microchip. Not 100% but helps to determine if the cat already owns another human. If not, well, she has been adopted. She asked me why the cat after licking her hand gives her just a tiny nip. Not a real bite. I told her she has become mom. I will call in a few days to see if she has been adopted.
