With a total of ten different cats on the island at different times
(never all of them at the same time), we get to observe some interesting
cat dynamics every summer. The cats include my Mir and Cal, my middle
sister's Linus (brown tabby) and Ronja (tortie), my niece's (eldest
sister's daughter) Kasper and Emil (Russian Blues) (and Kira, though she
wasn't there this year), my other niece's (brother's daughter) Bella
(brown tabby) and Kevin (holstein), and my uncle's Silja (the only
long-haired one, white with grey tail).

As I mentioned in another post, it's hard to describe Caliban's and
Emil's relationship. They are both young and playful, but they wouldn't
play together, though they would play at the same time as each other.
The only time I really saw them interacting was one day when they
discovered the canoe. It's a kayak, and it's kept upside-down with the
ends resting on a couple of old barrels when it's not being used. One
cat would creep inside the sitting well and run the length of the canoe
inside, while the other one would run along its keel. Every now and then
the one inside (usually Caliban, though they would change places now and
then) would pop out his head through the hole of a sitting well (it's a
two-seater) to see where the other one was. Soon after a paw would pop
out and flail in the air, trying to bap the outside cat. They kept at it
for a long time, and it was very funny, but otherwise the boys were just
cool with each other, and didn't really play much.

Miranda was another story. It's very easy to get a rise out of Miranda.
While Caliban usually just flops down and looks submissive if someone
hisses or even looks at him, Miranda will initiate the hissing, and then
she will run. This made her very interesting, especially to Linus and
Kasper, the two big boys on the island. Numerous times I would hear her
hissing as she ran away from one or the other, and even scream as if she
was being mauled. It's just that the pursuer was never anywhere near her
when she screamed.

This gave me a clue to Miranda's sneaky streak. We also observed that,
though she isn't really a very small cat (just skinny), she can make
herself look very small. Somehow she just squeezes herself together so
she looks tiny. This had the effect that, whenever Miranda hissed at
someone, everyone would go, 'oh, poor wittle Miranda, was the big cat
mean to you?', while when Kasper hissed at someone, everyone went,
'Kasper, stop bullying the other cats!' I started suspecting that she
knew very well what she was up to after I'd seen her several times
coming out of nowhere, stalking right up to Emil or Kasper, and hissing
in their faces, then running away. If they didn't chase her, she would
soon creep back and do another 'hiss and run'. After seeing that, I
stopped chasing away the big boys who were purportedly harassing her. It
was all just a game to her.

The big boys, Linus and Kasper, always have their territorial
negotiations in the summer. They will meet at the border between their
territories (and that border changes all the time in accordance with
some mysterious feline border treaty) for negotiations. Each cat turns
sideways, raises his back, poofs out, and glowers at his enemy (they are
both very good in the glowering department). Then they start to curse at
each other - but the funny part is that they both have very
high-pitched, girly voices, so we have these two fierce-looking big
boycats pretty much singing pop tunes at each other. :oP They never
touch each other, but the ritual is repeated every now and then, and the
borders seem to change all the time, so their negotiations do seem to
have an effect - despite the girly singing.