>>1967661My cat used to follow me out in the woods all the time. I wouldn't cajole her, I would just leave the house and go for a walk, and either she would be right at my heels from the start or after 5mins alone at home she would run like a little bullet through the leaves and catch up with me.
She'd follow me for a couple hours if I was out that long. When the undergrowth was thick she's try to keep up by running along logs or stone walls, I wouldn't see her for a couple minutes and then she'd be on the trail ahead of me waiting for me to catch up.
Nights when I was out in those woods camping she would appear out of the darkness and spend an hour or so with me, especially if I was cooking delicious food. Same if I was out at like 3am doing a field recording, the little bitch would suddenly pop out of the darkness and scare the shit out of me.
Idunno how to encourage a cat to do this stuff but they are definitely capable of being /out/ companions. The only thing I'd worry about is they do go off on their own for maybe hours at a time and you have to be sure they won't get lost or start chasing rodents until they're too far away. I never brought my cat out of our own woods, so she was always oriented and if she disappeared in the woods she'd be back home at breakfast or dinner time.
