We sometimes see the living version of Hobbes in strips in which Calvin doesn’t appear. (They’re also strips in which no human characters appear: basically, Hobbes has the whole strip to himself.) That means he does have some existence independent of Calvin.
So she can better show off her dangling earbobs, of course!
Seriously though. This is a lesson in the perils of casual cruelty. You may not remember the hurtful thing you did or said without a second thought, but someone else can’t stop thinking about it. Let’s all be more careful about these things.
She pulled his hat down over his face for making the suggestion? Seems a bit extreme.