Mr. Cat is not deterred by blizzards.

As you may know, Mr. Cat is the feral-ish tabby tomcat who's been living on my front porch for almost two years. He has a heated porch chair with a fuzzy blanket, a heated food and water bowl, and a little hut that he doesn't seem to use. I find him on his chair almost every morning when I come out to give him his breakfast. Depending on the weather, sometimes he eats and then goes back to sleep on his chair; sometimes he goes off to do cat stuff.

It's just stopped snowing after two days of snow and wind. Yesterday Mr. C. spent most of the day on the chair and took off around sunset, as he usually does, despite the snow. My neighbor around the corner sent me an email to let me know that she'd seen him walking up her street, going who knows where. Since then it snowed like crazy and I wondered whether Mr. C. would be back by morning or if he'd hole up somewhere. But this morning he was back on his chair. Recent tracks in the snow showed that he'd come up from the sidewalk, but there were older tracks suggesting that he'd come and gone during the night.

I fed him, and assumed he'd settle back in his cozy chair for the day because now there's about 16" of new snow on the ground on top of the 6" or so that was already there. But right after he ate he took off, plowing through the snow in my side yard and then creeping along the neighbor's house where there wasn't as much snow. I have no idea where he was going, or why. He's not back yet but I don't expect him because he's seldom around in the evening.

What I want to know is, what the hell does a cat do in so much snow, when hunting is probably unproductive? Is he just guarding the perimeter because that's his job? Does he have some other food source? Does he have a girlfriend? Why doesn't he stay on the porch where it's warm and he has food? If it was me I wouldn't go out (I am me, and I'm not going out). What do cats actually do, and why?