I’ve been making an effort to go out for a one to two mile walk two to three times a week. This morning was one of my walking mornings. I was about five minutes into my walk when I saw them – three little black kittens and their mother playing in front of one of the houses near my local library. I have seen these cats before near the one church on my side of the main street. But I never knew where they were from, never knew how many of them there were, and usually they’d dash off by the time I get there.

So the mama cat and her three little kitties were all out enjoying their morning in front of what appears to be their house. They were all black. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entire family of all black cats before. I tried to approach the mama cat, but she didn’t want to get close, and her little ones were busy ambushing each other and rolling around in the grass chasing stray leaves. They were just too adorable!

I continued with my walk, and passed by the house again about forty minutes later on my way home. The three little kittens were still playing, while their mom kept an eye on them. I saw one of the little ones pouncing on a leaf, while the littlest of the three bravely attacked a piece of paper towel, chased it, and then proceeded to have a ball biting it into shreds. They didn’t run away, and I decided to try something. I took off my headphones, and started dangling them in the middle of some leaves. One of the kittens slowly came over and tentatively investigated the headphones with its paw. This went on for a while, and then one of the littler ones decided to be the really brave one of the bunch, and went for the full pounce. This little one got up a lot closer to me than any of the others, and almost let me pet him (or her, I really couldn’t tell). He’d get within about an inch of my finger, and then back away. I ended up playing with the two of them (the littlest one was still busy chasing the shredded paper towel bits all over the grass) for about twenty minutes.

This was so much closer than I’d ever been to any of them before, because usually they run away from people passing by, so it was really something special. They were all so cute and so fiesty! Next time, I’ll make sure I have some cat treats with me!