Weeeell. I think one of the fundamental problems is that the Doodledog keeps expecting the cat to be an intellectual equal. Which, uh. He is not. He's very pretty! (orangey red and stripey and very fluffy, quite lionine, really). But if you blow in one ear, you hear a whistling sound.

And the Doodle lived for a year when I very first got her with a cat who smacked her around a bit. So she has learned to be respectful and careful of cats and their reach, with a healthy mix of 'play with me!' in there. But poor Rufus, he is just so inconsistent from one day to the next that he's stressing her out. He'll hiss at her one day, then meow a friendly hello the next, because he honest-to-God doesn't remember who she is half the time. I think she'd probably feel better if he was mean all the time; as it is, she seems to be wailing 'what do you want?' at him.

...So she destresses by disemboweling his plushy mice. I find this unhelpfully hilarious. "Stop that! ....ahaha doggie passive aggression."