The life of Tomcat Bucho 19 The rut of delusion

The cold was getting worse, and it looked like it was going to snow the next day. When I returned from going out in the morning, Bucho was there to greet me at the entrance, which was unusual for me. It was going to snow the next day, I thought.

But my husband said, "Bucho has become neurotic."

According to my husband, he had been running around excitedly since the morning and was out of control, and now he has finally calmed down and become quiet.

When I suggested that it might be because of the snow, or that he was excited by the prospect of snow, my husband retorted that that wasn't the case, but that many cats have gotten excited because of snow in the past.

Then I remembered hearing some male cats fighting recently during mating season.

It's rutting season. Bucho was neutered a year ago. Around this time a year ago, Bucho was in rutting season, so I quickly made an appointment with the vet and had him neutered. But I read or heard somewhere that once a cat has experienced rutting season, it remembers it for the rest of its life.

Bucho then stayed in the storage closet until night, sleeping. He didn't eat lunch or dinner. Shimao ate all of Bucho's dinner. When Bucho came down from the storage closet late at night, he looked completely sane. He ran to the place where the dry food was and munched it down.

Bucho had experienced a delusional heat phase.