The cat growls in a low humming sort of way. Thinking. It is unlikely that it followed all of that and any hope that it might begin speaking to you in sentences is quickly dashed in the reality of waiting while it finishes the meat you provided it and considers.

The nature of the cat speaks in some sense to both the strengths of the past and of the lack of vision contained within it. The people who created this ecosystem planned for an autonomous rebuilding through evolutionary genetics that functioned correctly and that changed the ecosystem to benefit from and produce valuable materials (as understood by humanity of the past) in unusually high quantities. But they didn't think to themselves that maybe they could have enhanced the social aspects of cats that already prefer group living (though they'd have had to import since all American big cats are solitary). Nor did they consider that a cat might wish to request wings or the power to breathe fire, or any number of other things. Or...perhaps they did and the cats simply declined to change their fundamental form. 

The cat, at any rate, cannot say. But it can finish up the boar's leg with satisfaction, pulling the last bits off the bone, and then follow you with a sort of wary curiosity that says that it wonders whether you might feed it again in a while but also that if you try to climb on [i]it[/i] you will still lose a limb or find that it has disappeared into the trees.

Sandrea has turned now, veering more west, towards the ocean. Activity behind her seems to think this is a good sign. Several humans have started cheering and throwing their fists in the air.