Ivy has hated Bossy (who is not a cow, but rather Bossy Boots, a name I wouldn't have picked but which was applied to her when she was a very new presence in our lives and was not expected to become an indoor presence, and it stuck) since before Bossy came inside, I believe. Ivy is her mother's cat, but she also likes sitting on me, and I think she felt it was incumbent on me to always be available. But I was going outside and consorting with Bossy, whom Ivy had a very dim view of from the outset for some reason.

Then we brought Bossy in and she had to be quarantined for several months because it took a long time to get her to the vet to assure us that she wasn't a carrier of diseases, and then she had to be quarantined for another month after she saw the vet because the visit didn't go very well and she bit the vet tech who was trying to get her out of the carrier, so now if Bossy goes to the vet she does so drugged and not in a carrier. Okay, that sentence got out of hand. Let me start over.

Then we brought Bossy in, and after the aforementioned quarantine period, she was introduced to the general population, and it didn't go that well, to be honest. She's very timid. And Ivy hates her.

Bossy has gotten over a lot, and she's much better than she used to be, and Ivy has calmed down from white-hot fury to seething resentment. But occasionally, Ivy will get a bee in her bonnet about some remembered slight or other and attack Bossy, who will run away and hide. Bossy is never the instigator. Bossy just wants to be left alone.

This state of affairs is a general improvement, so I hope eventually Ivy will give it up, but it's been more than a year now and she has my permission to stop being a jerk any time she wants. I think the pecking order has been established, with Bossy fimly in her place at the bottom. She doesn't need to be reminded of this. But she is allowed to sit in my lap whether Ivy likes it or not, consarn it.

Bossy and Poffie don't get along all that well either but that's less because of any malice on the part of Poffenberger and more because Poffie doesn't really understand how not to attack other cats. Poffie has on occasion attacked Mulberry, which is a very bad idea. Poffie is fortunate that Mulberry seems to like her and forgives her these transgressions. Poffie is a child of chaos and she enjoys getting into trouble. I don't think she likes Bossy, per se, but she doesn't harbor any animosity towards Bossy either.

Mulberry and Bossy get along reasonably well, at this point. Bossy occasionally finds Mulberry's invasion of her space to be worthy of fighting back, but it's usually not protracted and they can be in the same general area without too much friction.

Bossy and Flynn get along as well as any two timid cats who are convinced that the other is trying to do them harm can get along, which is to say, they don't get in each other's spaces and they don't fight because they won't get near one another. We had harbored hopes that they might get along by shared timidity, but they seem to have settled on giving each other a wide berth whenever possible.

And Artie, bless him, is oblivious, so he gets in Bossy's space without realizing he's doing it, then looks affronted when she asserts her boundaries. He's pretty, my special son, but he's not bright.

I'm sure you all were desperate to know all of that.