Strangely enough, yes! Skitty are notoriously playful pokémon, and they seem most attracted to other creatures they perceive as cat-like beings. While you are essentially a very large cat to your skitty, your espeon has a generally cat-like shape that’s larger than your skitty’s, so therefore, your espeon is a much more ideal target. Usually, this behavior subsides upon evolution, but that’s not really a guarantee, unfortunately. Either way, if you’ve chosen not to evolve your skitty, I’m afraid that your espeon has many, many days of being pounced on ahead of him.