The life of Tomcat Bucho 20 A night of freedom
We have two cats. Shimao, a male cat we rescued 13 years ago, and Bucho (Fukuchiyo), a male cat we rescued two years ago. Shimao was trained by Fujio, the resident cat, from a young age and was allowed to go outside. At that time, the cat door was left open all day.
However, Bucho was a clumsy and restless kitten. I was afraid to let him outside. Luckily, he was only about two or three weeks old when I rescued him, so I decided not to let him outside.
And at night, after Bucho went to sleep in my husband's room in the back, we decided to close the door between the hallway and the living room and open the cat door only for Shimao. Bucho was not happy about that. It was also a lot of work to lead Bucho to my husband's room every night.
So I thought.
What would happen if I left the living room door open at night instead of leading Bucho to my husband's room? Then I would have to keep the cat door closed all night. Would Shimao get angry?
As an experiment, I left the living room door open on a night when I didn't have plans to go out the next morning. At nine o'clock, Shimao started to get a little fussy, so I opened the glass door facing the garden and he went out for a long evening walk.
As for Bucho, he was watching Shimao cautiously from the top of the closet, his squid ears peeking out as he made his way out.
Shimao returned after about 30 minutes.
I got into bed with Shimao and read a book for a while, and then Bucho climbed down from the drawer and came to the bed. I wondered if he wanted to sleep with me, but he thought for a while at the bedside, then he jumped down with a look on his face that said, "That's not right."
I saw Bucho's tail standing straight up and swinging at the foot of the bed, then it left the room, never to return to the closet.
According to my husband, Bucho immediately crawled into bed and fell asleep.
Shimao also didn't go out until morning, and spent the time sleeping in the bed or in his own cat bed with a hot water bottle.
Oh, it was okay.