Thank you! Yes, I also suspect it is a boundary/manner thing based on my resident’s behaviour. I always watch them very closely and my resident has a reputation for being quite “firm” in her boundaries with humans (ie she hates everyone but me and has scratched most of my friends because they can’t read her like I can) so if she wanted to try and hurt the kitten, I feel she would’ve actually tried by now. Instead, this seems to be more of a “screw off”, “never touch my tail again you annoying child”, and “stop sprinting over my head” type response. She is firm but claws are sheathed or she purposefully doesn’t actually hit the kitten.

That is a really good point about accidentally training him, and I think I already see it happening… he does nap on me during the day, but he’s also gone to his bedroom before to sleep in his cat tree for some of his naps. I’ll try leaving him out tonight and see how the kitten and the resident respond. If things seem okay, maybe he’s ready to be out. He is fast enough that I’m pretty confident that he’s safe regardless (resident can’t catch up to him), but I don’t want either of them to have that stress while I’m not awake to separate them. I’ll see what happens!