Originally published as  “The Kittens” in The Reflector, Winter 1965-1966

The story for which he won an Atlantic Monthly Short Story contest in 1966.

From the Readers & Writers table of contents:
“’This particular story is an agglomeration of observed fact and imagined fantasy.’ writes the author, who is twenty years old and an undergraduate English major at Shippensburg State College, Pennsylvania.  He lists his favorite authors as Ernest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury, and Robert Heinlein, who he considers the master of Science Fiction.”