Like you, we never had a cat for a pet until we got our tabby 5 years ago. Prior to that I was a cat hater, dog lover. Whatever cat wondered into our live trap was shot. I always thought of cats as deceptive people hating loners that only hang around for food.
Was I ever wrong!
I’ve found cats to be very loyal, very attached to humans, very affectionate, very attention demanding and extremely smart. I wish I would have figured this out years ago.
IMO there are 3 kinds of cats:
1. What I call the woods cat, the wild ones born in the woods, fearful of humans and if caught will scratch and bite.
2. The house cat, lives in the house, seldom goes outdoors, has a indoor litter box and behaves as I described in the beginning.
3. The outdoors cat, stays primarily outdoors, is usually kept for mousing, may be not at all friendly to humans or could somewhat affectionate depending on how they are treated as kittens. If mommy keeps them hidden from humans they could be more like the wild ones and come around for food only.
Racoons, hawks and coyotes are known to kill out outdoor cats.
Thanks for the feedback/info, especially about the raccoons and coyotes as we have “coydogs” in the area.