He was worried that his house had been broken into. What he discovered took him completely by surprise.

Meet seven cute kittens and their mother!

In amazement, he grabbed his camera and would you believe that at one point the mother called her children and they all lined up right outside in front of where he was standing behind the screen door.

“The seven kittens continued to play on the deck and in the yard,” Tim explains. They ran back and forth and grabbed each other.

“I started taking pictures. I thought “Wow! What amazing luck. This is amazing! They are so cute. It’s so cute!”

As he watched the adorable kittens struggle, roll and chase each other, he felt admiration for the mother who was always watching over them.

Lynx are notoriously elusive and Tim has only seen them a few times in the wild.

Having the opportunity to capture them up close from the comfort of his own home was an exciting experience – a dream come true for any photographer.

“I’ve never seen so many bobcats,” he said. “When I saw all these bobcats on my deck, I was stunned.”

“They started playing again,” Newton said.

“For the next 40 minutes, they all played on my deck. They chased each other, rolled and struggled.”

The bobcat didn’t seem to realize he was even there except one of the kittens approached the screen to investigate. That didn’t go well.

“I don’t know why I did this – maybe to tell him, ‘Oh, what a cute little kitty!’ – but I pulled the camera slightly away from my face and my eyes showed out,” he said.

“The look of horror on that kitten’s face! His eyes opened wide and he just flew away from me! But others don’t realize that.”

Here’s the mom watching all her kittens running around and playing in the backyard, Tim is impressed at how well she has them under control.

After a while, the mother lynx decided that playtime was over and she casually gathered around her kittens and together they returned to the forest.

Tim said the whole encounter was like some kind of miracle.

“We are always happy to see wildlife,” he said. “It makes me feel grateful – grateful for where I live. I am so grateful to have seen these bobcats up close.”