cuddles is almost a year old.
a young adult, just like drifter was when we met.
so, i think i can comment on the differences between feral cats n house cats.
the main difference is that drifter is professionally paranoid.
even when sound asleep between my legs, she is always ready to leap for safety.
she is not hand shy in the house. i can touch her.
not outside tho. i can't get near her there, unless she approaches me to get a drink of water.
drifter is always alert, even after 14 months in the house.
cud is not afraid of anything.
he can come to my side when i'm shooting, tho the vacuum bothers him.
drifter has made peace with the vacuum, if she's up on the couch back.
drifter mostly trusts me, but only as much as she trusts anything.
she demands respect n i can take no liberties with her.
cud trusts me implicitly.
i can pick him up, toss him in the air, squish him to pieces n he doesn't mind/
he knows i won't hurt him.
this is handy if i wanna take a nap n want to be purred to sleep.
he loves being cuddled, which is how he got his name.
this is not so good if he is doing something bad.
if drifter is doing something bad she will stop if i shout no.
this might have saved her life when she was drinking fertilizer.
cud ignores my shouts.
as to behavior, cud is rambunctious., but probably because he's a boy.
drifter comports herself like a lady.
if she wants to go out, she sits by the door.
if she's hungry, she sits by her bowl.
cud yells to go out, or in, or to get fed.
making noise outside may get him killed, but he cries to come in when he;s 8' off the ground.
drifter won't ever purr or meow much, but she has in the past, so she is not mute.
cud is nocturnal n i can't change that.
even if awake, he doesn't like leaving the house during the day,
but around 11pm he demands to be let out.
this will work fine until nights get cold.
i won;t let him out if the forecast is under 20 degrees.
i suspect drifter is normally nocturnal, but she changed her behavior to accommodate me.
she sleeps when i do.
i'm important to drifter.
she remembers what life was like without me.
i no longer know who is killing for me.
drifter brot a baby mouse into the garden.
i praised her, but she dropped it n let it get away so she could
catch it, over n over.
i have ruined her.
she never used to play with her food so much.
i'm feeding too much but it's hard for me to cut food when no one except me is fat.
on the other hand, i see cud with a mouse a couple times/week.
he's playing with them too, but i know when he spends all night outside he gets hungry.
these critters like eating every 4 hours, so he must be doing his job.
so these guys are very different, but also the same.
when i call them in, i see them walking down the hall side by side.
somehow, they look like an outlaw motorcycle gang, looking for a fight.
they don't care about coyotes.
they know they are apex predators.
