I keep trying to get Michelle to treat them with the proper respect, referring to them as Mr. Bubba and Miss Ella, but she refuses. The cats are offended.
I was only gone a few days but when I returned, Ella and Bubba were so glad to see me that I was able to pick both of them up at the same time and they were both purring. Usually, when I do that, Ella is not at all pleased. This show of unity didn't last long but it was there.
Ella is OCD. Michelle and I have both noticed it. She thinks I should go to bed between midnight and one o'clock in the morning and will start nagging me to do that. It's not that she wants to go to bed; I've tried it, and if I go to bed when she tells me to, she goes back downstairs. But she thinks it's my bedtime. When she does sleep in our bed, she takes the same path every time. She will come up on the bed at my pillow, walk across the back of my pillow, then walk between Michelle and me, and then she'll spend at least five minutes kneading the blanket between my legs, between my knees and my ankles, and then lie down after turning around four or five times. If I pick her up and put her on the bed, she will go back down again so that she can come back up on the bed at my pillow and follow her assigned path. When she wants to lie down on the cat bed next to my computer, although there is a cat tree just across from it which, I would think, would be the easiest way for her to get up there, she jumps on a dresser, which I use for storage, crosses over to my desk, walks across my keyboard, and then make her way to the cat bed. Sometimes she will go behind my computer instead, but when she does that, she isn't going to lie down on the cat bed. If she decides she wants to lie down, she retraces her steps behind my computer so that she can do it the right way, by walking across my keyboard.
I think it annoys Ella that Bubba always thinks she's playing, even though she's hissing and spitting mad at him. She can throw her biggest tantrum, and Bubba's reaction is, "Oh, good! I got your attention. Let's play!" She's made his nose bleed a few times, and Bubba is still convinced she's playing. I guess there's something to that. Bubba makes me bleed, and he is playing. That cat pretty much never gets upset.
He loves teasing Ella but, in the end, he lets her be in charge although he's twice her size now and probably three times heavier. Although she's made him bleed, he's never hurt her.
The library, which Ella (and not Bubba) has a key for is not right next to my office. To get there, I have to go through a utility room, and then there is an exterior door and exterior walls separating the library from the rest of the house because, before it was closed in, it used to be a porch, I think. I left Ella's window open a little bit in the library, leaving a screen down. A few moments ago, I was in my office with the television on and I could hear Ella having a hissy fit in the library. I thought maybe Bubba had found his way into the library. He did that once, probably following immediately behind her before the door locked. But no, Bubba was on the cat tree in my office. The black cat was sitting beneath Ella's window, looking calmly up at her and Ella was not so calm. she was throwing a fit. She was furious.
I posted this earlier in this thread, but this is my favorite photo of Bubba, from when he was a kitten, just over a year ago.
I think Ella persuaded Bubba to quit coming when I call him, probably letting him know about that cat code. He used to pretty much always come when I call him, but he no longer does. He does answer me verbally most of the time, though, and often he looks like he would like nothing more than to come to me but he can't, because he's a cat, and cats don't do as they're told.