Trooper by Forrest Johnson.
I’ve been reading this for a while; it was my car book, which by definition only gets read in odd moments here and there, so the car book can take a while. It was a good pick up and put down book, more a string of happenings than a plot like a novel. But it was well written, and the guy obviously loved his “cat.”
Johnson found Trooper when he was taking a walk one day and heard a cactus crying. Poor kitten stuck in a cactus, no mother or siblings around, possibly had taken refuge there against a predator. He extracted Trooper and took him to the vet for treatment. The vet took one look and informed him, “That’s not a cat.” Johnson couldn’t believe it. Fur, ears, even purrs. This was a cat. Nope, it was a bobcat kitten.
After Trooper was treated (and neutered), Johnson took him home. Lifelong adventures ensued. Note that they did live on the edge of a desert, and Trooper had a nice “hybrid” life available where he could go roam the wild and then return to purr on beds. He was quite fond of his person, and he was never aggressive with other cats or dogs. He even adopted a stray kitten (actual kitten) himself in his later years and brought it home. He was amiable from being raised with people from a very young age, but he was large, of course, and had a voice that stopped people in their tracks.
Interesting book, and I enjoyed the “catliness” of the bobcat along with the wild edge differences. I also appreciated that Johnson had absolutely no intentions of getting a wild animal to be “neat.” He was just rescuing a “kitten” in trouble, and everything took off from the unintended beginning. I’ll be keeping this book, not tossing it back into the pile at Paperbackswap.
, but if you haven’t read Ring of Bright Water, I think you’d like it.