He was worried that his home was being broken into, what he found took him completely by surprise.

Meet seven cute lynx kittens and their mother!

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

The seven kittens proceeded to play around on the deck and in the yard, “They were running back and forth, pouncing on each other,” explained Tim.

“I started snapping away. I thought “Wow! What incredible luck. This is just wonderful! They were so cute. It was cute-tastic!”

As he watched the adorable kittens wrestling, rolling around and chasing each other he felt admiration for the mother who was keeping a watchful eye on them.

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

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

“I’ve never seen so many lynx,” he said. “To see all these lynx on my deck, I was gobsmacked.”

“They started to play again,” Newton said.

“For the next 40 minutes, they all played on my deck. They were chasing each other, rolling and wrestling.”

The lynx didn’t seem to notice he was even there at all except for one of the kittens, who approached the screen to investigate. That didn’t go well.

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

“The look of terror on that kitten’s face! His eyes were wide open, and he just flew away from me! But the others didn’t pick up on it.”

Here is the mother watching all of her kittens running around and playing in the backyard, Tim was impressed by how well she kept them under control.

After a while the mother lynx decided that playtime was over and she casually rounded up her kittens and they marched back into the forest together.

Tim said the whole encounter felt like some sort of miracle.

“We’re always thrilled to encounter wildlife,” he said. “It makes me feel thankful — thankful for where I live. I’m thankful to have seen these lynx up close.”