Tracey, I think you're right about Cirrus thinking that Storm may hurt Sunny and is afraid to interrupt.

Cirrus sounds a lot like Fister, he was (as you probably know) born in our backyard and didn't have much contact with humans until we took him up. And he certainly doesn't like to be picked up either. He will lay in our bed and walk all over us and we can touch him everywhere, but he'll never come and lay on our lab.