May was our second cat and lived with us for about 22 years. She was very affectionate, but also a crafty and patient hunter. Unfortunately, she quickly eliminated all kangaroo rats from our two acres. I did once manage to rescue a little canyon wren she brought into the house, but our entrances were often littered with quail feathers, and in the Spring, with rabbit remains. On the other hand, she maintained a good relationship with neighboring skunks and could sense the presence of coyotes or mountain lions at times I could see nothing of danger around. After she first joined us, pests like the insect kingdom's response to the vampire, the "Hualapai Tiger", quickly disappeared, with no ground squirrel dens left to inhabit.
Like her companion cat, Cinnamon, she was quite capable of providing for herself and could live quite independently when we were away on vacations. In fact, the two of them not only played with each other, but even liked to tease other animals, like rattlesnakes (reaching a paw out to provoke a strike and withdrawing it just in time). We once saw May leap to the top of our fence with a limp rattlesnake in her mouth! But May's timing was not always perfect; she lost about three inches off her tail when a door blew shut. Our son performed the necessary vertebral surgery (I couldn't have done it) and antiseptic bandaging. She left the bandage in place and healed quickly. On another occasion, she ran and jumped in the van one morning while Mrs. Wildargs was climbing in to go to work. She refused to get back out, and finally Mrs. W realized the cat had a swollen cheek, inflamed from a fight, and wanted to go to the Vet. She got her wish and a week of antibiotics!