Feral Cat Cuteness

I have mentioned many times that we have a feral cat problem in our neighborhood, largely because of a neighbor's misguided habit of feeding them.  When Tucker first started going outside, a number of the feral cats gave him a lot of grief, but our little tough guy successfully fought them all off to establish his dominance of his own yard.

All but one, that is.  Ever since he started going outside, he's been tortured by one imperious, domineering, self-important, rotten stinker of a wild tom cat to whom we affectionately refer as King Friday.

King Friday gives Tucker a real run for his money.  He's not the biggest tom cat around - not by any stretch - although he has enough fur for three cats.  He's just the wiliest, most irritating, most persistent tom, who seems to enjoy annoying Tucker.  I swear you can hear him snigger as he walks away, after having wound Tucker up to a yowling, twitching frenzy.  Given that Tucker did that to us for years before we started letting him outside, I don't begrudge King Friday his fun.

All of a sudden this spring, King Friday has acquired a set of mini-mes.  Clearly Friday is fertile.  His kittens are so damn cute it hurts, and they look so much like their papa it's incredible.  It turns out they appear to have inherited their papa's personality, too.  The pair of them now spend their days stalking Tucker, teasing him, annoying him, bothering him, and generally giving him no peace.

On Saturday, my husband captured one of them creeeeeeeping surreptitiously into Tucker's space.  I thought the photos were positively priceless.  Here he is, pretending to be invisible under the grill.

Remind me to wash the vegetable grilling tray thoroughly before I use it again.  The next sequence cracks me up:

Inching onto Tucker's back step.

Oh, there's a cameraman.

Oops - crap, there's Tucker, and he's not happy!

Tucker wins... for now.

They're only going to get more obnoxious as they get older and gain confidence.  Poor Tucker.  Methinks it's going to be a frustration-filled spring for him.  Serves him right.  He's the one who insisted on being an outdoors cat.