The Kitten's Hour

Borrowing very loosely from Longfellow with just a few adjustments:

"Between the dark and the daylight,
When the day is beginning to glower,
Comes a pause in the morning's occupations,
That is known as the Kitten's Hour".

I am over run with cats. Nico, the famous shoe peeing cat, arrived the summer of 2005 as a frightened kitten and has stayed despite his fear of just about everything. Katty Kay arrived in the fall of 2009 and has taken over the house - the only female and the only mean cat. She has no manners, but she came already spay so I suspect she was dumped for her bad disposition. She can be sleeping soundly on the red wing chair while Nico snoozes on the brown stool across the room. Suddenly she awakens, looks straight at Nico, then jumps up and attacks him.

L to R, Zeke, Pipster and Nico

A neighbor talked me in to taking four kittens during the summer of 2010 - they had been born in the neighbor's work place and the boss wanted them gone. They were litter trained and were used to being handled.  They started out in the barn but quickly moved to the back porch where they set up an obstacle course with the chairs and tables, wood box and potted plants and daily practiced to be acrobats!

L to R, Jasper and Tigger

And last but not least the spring of 2011 brought four more kittens and their mother and father -both feral cats. Mom and Dad have both gone (Mom died and I expect the baby daddy was coyote dinner). Only eight of the twelve remain. I try desperately to keep them outside where they can search and destroy mice and other small critters, but they regularly set up an ambush as I come through any outside door, causing me to save myself from being tripped and allowing them to escape into the house.

I am happy to report that with the exception of one of the kittens, all are neutered and that little operation will be accomplished very soon!  
Here's the original Longfellow poem lines from "The Children's Hour"

"Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour".