An unlikely friendship

Muffin was the first cat I had after I moved to Canada and before we had kids, he was around for good 16 + years and he was a one of a kind cat. At the time we got him, we lived in an apartment and he made himself right at home, mostly in the flowerpots of our palm tree and fern collection, as he got bigger the pots got smaller and soon we had no plants left or only very sad looking plants. Then we moved into our first house and knowing that moving is not the easiest thing with and for a cat, I was always worried that he would wander away and get lost. The first few days in the new house we didn't see him anywhere, couldn't find him in the house nor the neighbourhood. Then after a few days he appeared out of the basement. Muffin had the bad habit of always trying to sneak out and again I was worried that he get lost or killed by traffic so making him an indoor cat was the intention. One day I took the boys, then still very small out for a walk around the block, when we came back Muffin sat outside in front of the door, so obviously he snug out unnoticed when we left, but was patiently waiting for us to return. He  took any chance he could get to escape to the outside world. After a few escapes we noticed that he doesn't really go anywhere, so we let him outside. In all the years we lived there, Muffin never left the property, he sat either in the front garden or stayed in the backyard. Then a few years later we moved again into our current house, again Muffin was excited to be in a new place and soon ventured outside, but only to explore our backyard and the front of the property. I have never seen Muffin across the street or up by the park or any other place but our property.  He enjoyed watching the birds at the feeder and the squirrels coming to the back door. Even when Muffin was right sitting there outside, the birds and squirrels came right up to him, without Muffin ever making any attempt to harm them, he just sat there and watched. I remember one day he was sitting on a nut for the squirrels and this squirrel reached right under him to get it, and he just sat there. He got excited when we would watch them from the window, but never ever attempted to  hunt for them. Then we added a few more pets to the house in the form of Guinea pigs and another cat. I had a guinea pig when I was little and it was such a cute and amazing little friend, so each of the kids got their own guinea pig and Muffin took a special liking to Rodney and the two of them often spent time together when Rodney had out of the cage time. Never ever harming him or seeing him as an overgrown food source, but always just sitting nicely and keeping an eye on him.