Rules for the neighborhood kids

I have always been friendly with the kids in my neighborhood, but ever since I got the kitten, Indigo, I am super popular.
I was home early one evening last week, lying in bed reading. There was a knock at the door; I answered and looked out at my own height. Not seeing anyone then I looked down. Niambh was standing there. "Do you have a kitten?" she asked.
"Yes, I have had her for two weeks."
"I thought so. I saw her yesterday sitting in the window. I called over last night but you weren't home, " she said looking at me accusingly.
"Yeah, I was out last night."
"Can I come in and see her?" Niambh asked.
"You can but she is hiding. She gets scared pretty easily and isn't used to people."
Niambh entered the front room and started looking around. "Where is she?"
"Dunno. Try looking behind the sofa or in the kitchen." Niambh started exploring and I went to sit in the open doorway with my cigs and water.
I can't find her," she said coming back out to me.
"Well, give it time. Once she gets used to you, she might come out. She gets livelier in later in the evenings."
"Can we do art?" Niambh asked.
"Sure, let me get the stuff." I pulled out paper for her and went into the spare room to collect the art supplies. "Are you going to make pictures for the street party?" I asked.
Niambh nodded. She set herself up at the table in the front room. "Do you not have any paints?" she asked after searching the plastic bag of supplies.
"Look again, I thought I had paints in that bag."
"I can't find any."
"Hmm, I don't know where they are then." She settled for the pastel crayons.
It was a warm evening so I sat in the doorway and watched the neighborhood. After a while, Niambh brought her artwork and supplies over. I decided to do a drawing, too. We both were drawing kittens. I used the museum garden where I found Indigo as the scene. Niambh and I compared our work periodically. "At least yours looks like a cat," I said to her at one point. "Mine looks more like a fox." She giggled and nodded.
More neighborhood kids arrived. It was Sean, Niambh's brother, Carlos, and Mick. "I came to see the kitten," said Niambh to them.
"Can we go see the kitten too?" they all chorused. "Please, please, please."
"Alright but don't make too much noise, you'll scare her." I shook my head; three boys between the ages of 6 and 10. Quiet was not really an option.
"OK," said Sean. "Yeah!" said Carlos and Mick as they climbed over Niambh and her painting. The three boys charged around my little house. They moved all the things that Indigo could be hiding under.
"I saw her!" yelled Mick. The other two boys pushed him out of the way to get their turn.
After a bit, the boys got bored and started roughhousing in the front room. Niambh looked over at them. "Boys are a lot of trouble," she said. I agreed, thinking that most don't get any better when they are older either.
Eventually the noise the boys were making reached a level I could not stand. "Enough!" I roared, surprising myself at how loud I could yell (not to mention surprising them). They looked at me in shock but then started to wrestle again. "You're barred. Out!" Again, hesitation. "Now!" They hustled out.
"How long are we barred for?" asked Sean as he left. "How come she gets to stay?" asked Carlos.
I sighed. "Oh, you can visit another night later in the week." Then to Carlos, "she wasn't annoying me."
I decided to make up rules for the boys' next visit. The overlying guideline was that they were to behave or I wouldn't let them in. As that was too general, the explicit rules were #1, no burping; #2, no farting (the contests for #1 and #2 were unbearable); #3, roughhousing is okay, but no wrecking the joint; and finally #4, listen to me, and if I say stop or no, do what I say.
The rules were semi-successful on their next visit. They stayed longer and mostly behaved. On their third visit, they tested the rules and got barred again. It ended in tears.
Editor's note: Indigo turned out to be male.  I hadn't checked.