Our yellow cat, Gus, is bigger than Sadie–big enough to have his way–and he often bullies her. On warm evenings, my husband and I always spend time in the yard, and Gus considers us humans his property. Any time Sadie approaches within ten feet of us, she does so at her peril; she knows he’ll probably jump her.
That’s what makes his behavior so puzzling and funny if we put down just one food bowl with their favorite treat in it. Suddenly, he’s a … wuss.
After he walked away, we gave him his own bowl.
but I have observed that each cat does have dibs on some particular aspect of their mutual life, whether it is who gets to sit on the red fuzzy blanket (as opposed to the green blanket that is not fuzzy) or who can take over the other’s food although each cat has claimed a particular human, a claim that is respected, so that we don’t have overt possessive displays).