He is certainly the wrong color to survive here; he has way too much white. But not only does he survive, he thrives. He is lean but all muscle and not bony at all. He is probably quite young. Then, in April, he came over to me and started rubbing my legs & wanting to be petted. Alas, he is dangerous to pet. He enjoys it, but gets over-excited and grabs and bites and claws. We sorted out rules for petting and I continue to carefully pet him when he wants it. I also started feeding him; of course I did.
I had a strong suspicion that he was also going to my near-by neighbors down the canyon. I finally called them and asked, and, sure enough, he was. In April, he had come up to my neighbor and rubbed his legs and wanted to be petted. So he got petted and fed. He also cleaned out most of the rodents around their place, even the squirrels. And yesterday, we verified that he is also visiting another neighbor who is between us. We are all feeding him when he shows up and all of us are petting him--carefully, as he has nailed all of us. He also enjoys bugging our house cats and getting into yowling fests with them.
I had named him Wildcat, because he is. The one neighbors had named him Hunter, because he is. And the other neighbors had named him Tuffy, because he is. Probably his name should be "Freddy the Freeloader!"
