Adding to the many anecdotes here.. I had an orange tabby growing up in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Our property abutted a golf course. The cat was mostly

Adding to the many anecdotes here.. I had an orange tabby growing up in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Our property abutted a golf course. The cat was mostly an outdoor cat, coming and going as weather and food swayed it. Quite the hunter of snakes/squirrel/rabbit and birds, she was regularly dive bombed by blue jays when crossing the golf course. We were also a dog family and the cat followed on our walks, golf course during the day and around the block at night. Quite a few times she 'protected' the dog from other cats on the nightly walk. I always found it a bit strange that she did this but I guess it is not all that uncommon to follow the family.