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. Momcat, as I call the female bobcat I spent time with, embodied all the traits of a good mother. She provided for her kittens everyday without fail, protected them ferociously (from other bobcats and other species, which I got to witness), trained them with tough love, and when her duties were done, she would spend quality time with them, grooming and playing with them. Each day when the kittens were young, Momcat would find private moments of her own. She’d sprawl out on the patio, relaxed but always wary and watching. She’d lick her kittens clean as they climbed all over her, occasionally reprimanding one or the other with a smack of the paw here or there. Sometimes she’d nap on the patio table as the kittens used it as a jungle gym. And...