Photo by Karine Aigner kaigner / I spent several months photographing this family of wild bobcats denning under a house on a ranch in Texas. We met by accident when the kittens were about 10 weeks old, beginning a story that continues to the present. One evening, the female bobcat I call Momcat left on a walkabout with her two male kittens. The little female, thoroughly engrossed in bug pouncing, barely looked up as they went out through the fence. I watched for a while, thinking Momcat would be back, or the male kittens would return on their own. But no one came. At sunset I found the little female alone in the “kitten tree,” where so often they all spent the night together while their mom hunted. Hours later, at sunrise, sitting in the middle of the yard, the kitten was crying and calling, her whimpers falling on deaf ears. I’d made a deal with myself early on: I would never interfere. And just as I was about to entertain the idea of what I would do if Momcat never came back—there ...