I have mainly had dogs most of my life, but I have had a few cats.
You may call me 'backwoods' or 'redneck', but every pet I have had was an outdoors animal. We used to have up to 20 bengals for hunting...running deer and rabbits. But, over time my family got out of that trend. (I loved rabbit hunting w/ dogs though).
The best dog I ever had lived to be 14yrs old. Mix 50/50 Lab and Golden retriever ~90lbs, no papers, but he looked like a huge block-headed yellow lab. Alot of people around saw him and his demeanor and wanted us to stud him out. But without papers, that was a bust. Every time I went hunting around the house, he was right there by my side, nose to the ground. That ole mutt was the smartest stupid dog you would ever find (played like a puppy until the day he died). He was also a great source of laughs, horny as hell, hump anything that walked...even my uncle w/ a bad back that bent down to tie his shoe....LMAO.
He would follow a 4-wheeler for miles just because he knew it was time to hunt.
Even in his old age he would run a rabbit/deer/anything for hours and love it. Sadly, 3 of my neighbor's hog-dogs (catahoula curs) got out of their pen one day and eat him up. He was too old to defend himself and we had to put him down. I miss my old hunting buddy.