story identification - Youth/YA Boy with telepathic panther

I read this as a very young teen and don't remember much about it. What I do remember is

1. The setting was probably post-apocalyptic Earth but may have been a desolate extrasolar world


2. Human settlements were very sparse


3. A boy often went out and hunted by himself with his "cat" (in my mind's eye it is panther sized or larger)


4. He could communicate telepathically with the "cat"


5. The "cat" was intelligent


6. (this may or may not be a real memory) the large telepathic cats were descendents of domesticated cats


7. (this may or may not be a real memory) domestic dogs also survived but weren't nearly as smart and were not telepathic


8. Not sure whether it was the cat or the human who had telepathy or whether it was a bonding


9. I think it was a novel

Answer

I think this is the answer:

Published in 1952, Andre Norton’s Star Man’s Son (also known as Daybreak 2250), is an early post-nuclear-war novel that follows a young man, Fors, in search of lost knowledge. Fors begins his Arthurian quest through a radiation-ravaged landscape with the aid of a telepathic mutant cat. He encounters mutated creatures called "the beast things," which are possibly a degenerate form of humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptic_and_post-apocalyptic_fiction