Ferocious Feline from the Hiker's POV

This story involves a suburban MetroPark just outside of Dayton OH. Hills and Dales MetroPark to be precise. Wedged in between luxury houses and a golf course, this strip of woods offers a fairly challenging hike with some nice views. This is not a back-country kind of trail.

We were on a routine training mission on a warm fall evening. The sun was rapidly disappearing behind the line of trees to our west. We flicked on headlamps and kept moving along the wide smooth trail.

BT was leading the way about ten feet in front of me when there was an explosion of fur and commotion at her feet. She jumped. I jumped. In the dim light I tried to make out what was happening. A possum? A dog? Some sinister backwoods beast bent on our destruction?

Our headlamp beams converge on a single part of the trail. On that trail stands our attacker: a small gray housecat.

Cute as a button with perky ears, bright eyes, soft well-maintained fur and a jaunty harness complete with tags that identify him as a MetroParks cat.

He travelled with us for quite some time, following his own unique hiking pattern: fall behind while investigating some curiousity, then run past us right at our feet, then lead for a while at our pace until another curiosity caught his eye. 

A hiking cat! Who also seemed to be using using us for playful target practice. Or is it something more? 

So I asked him to write his story ... and that was what you read in the previous post.

He was dubbed a number of names over the few times we encountered him.  "Bear" the housecat because he lives in the woods. Various takes on Hiking Cat. We finally settled on Ferocious Feline, because he was so intent on stalking us and trying to scare people by leaping out at them from the trail's edge.

Of course he is not truly ferocious. One father and son hiking duo approached us coming the other way on a day we had not seen our furry friend. The son asked if we had seen the cat that jumped out of the bushes and "almost gave my dad a heart attack!" It's fun to be there at the beginning of a legend which will no doubt ebb and flow as different people encounter the cat and their reactions are passed on. The Mystery Cat of Hills and Dales or the MetroPark Killer Kitty depending on individual levels of drama are all possible iterations of the critter we have dubbed Ferocious Feline.

I just hope he is having fun and stays safe. His personality is such one can tell he is used to being around people, and his health and condition tell me he has a safe place to stay, probably indoors. I like to think he has his fun running the trails and can retire at night to his warm bed next to a fireplace, a big bowl of food and a big bowl of water just off to the side and a litter box not too far away, and nearby, some humans to refill the love and attention he is sharing on our trails.