Affection?

I think that Duncan is very slowly starting to show some affection. Little by little... When I come home from work at the end of the day and come up the walk to the front door, he has started barking at me once or twice. I can't tell though if he's excited to see me, or if he's just excited that I'm home so he can go out and potty! The other night when we were in bed Duncan seemed to be enjoying me rubbing his ears as we laid there. He got up and moved as I rolled over, but then he came back within reach of my hand; supposedly because he wanted me to rub his ears more. He has also started sleeping between my pillow and the headboard up at the top of my bed. He used to only do this when he was frightened because of a thunderstorm, but now he's sticking a little closer to me.

The other night I was on call for work and unfortunately got a call that woke us up in the middle of the night. Duncan was very confused and concerned about me. When I got up to get the phone he followed me. When I sat down on the bed to have my conversation, he followed me. When I went to put the phone back, he followed me, and when I went back to bed, he followed me and took his place up by my pillow. It was very cute.

And then last night we went for a walk. When we got back to the house I sat down on the floor to snuggle and kiss on Duncan a little bit. (Yes, the mushy stuff.) And Gracie decided she wanted to be part of the love. She rubbed up against me and came around and gave Duncan an gentle "head butt" on the cheek. Duncan and Gracie's relationship is pretty typical. Deep down, Gracie has no problem with Duncan. She doesn't mind dogs. But she does know that Duncan gets some of my attention that she would otherwise get and tends to be a little snotty and jealous sometimes. Typical cat. She will purposely stand in Duncan's way when I am holding the door open for him to go outside. She knows he has to go by her, and of course he's timid about it because he knows she may his or get snotty with him. But she does it just to spite him. But she really is a very affectionate cat. There have been a couple times that I could tell that she would have rubbed up against Duncan or given him a little head butt, however he would back away from her in understandable uncertainty. This time his head was in my hands as I was cuddling him and she just came up to us mid-cuddle and gently rubbed against him. He didn't seem to be bothered by it. I wonder what he'll do the next time she tries to head butt him.