Content Warning
There's a #scifi novel I read long ago, that I had figured must be Anne McCaffrey's 'Decision at Doona' - but now I'm reading that one it's apparent it's not.
It had humans arriving at a planet inhabited by big humanoid cats, like Doona does. But in this one, the female cats live in town & the males live alone in the woods except once a year, when the females go into heat & go out to meet a man, bringing gifts of industry to trade for pelts & such.