Growing up I had a cat--she was semi-feral (when we took her in to be spayed the doc found it had already been done, this was before trap-and-release) and had discovered that my father watched TV in the evenings and this made the window good hunting grounds for larger insects. In time I was able to get her trust and turn her into a pet although she was always far more self-reliant than a typical pet. (The idea of going to a human for help didn't seem to be within her thoughts. Empty food dish, she would try to slip into the closet where the bag of food was stored. Trapped in the closet she would simply wait for someone to open it.)