A housecat once followed a group of us on a short hike when I was a kid. It wasn't a challenging hike - 1,800' elevation gain, about 2/3 of it along a water pipeline laid on something like a trail. The cat started following us on its own at the bottom, and about halfway up we coaxed it along with food & water. At the top he tried to pounce on a grouse with a line of chicks in tow, but it forgot to keep its great big orange tail still during the windup and completely missed the pounce when the grouses (grice?) moved away.

The little guy got more and more reluctant to follow us on the way down. First it stopped moving for food & water, forcing us to carry it once in a while. Then it wouldn't let us even do that, and with an apparently content "meow" he stood his ground and watched us hike the last quarter mile out. I have no idea if he made it home. Maybe he *was* home.