{Consume me}

Remember her? 

 We discovered her in September...

She and her family have been lurking around here for months. 

 I have no idea who they belong to, but they've set up camp in various places around our yard.  

Today camp was set up in this {nasty} "flower"bed

I spotted the black one first, I thought it was the mom..

and realized she was accompanied by the yellow one.

but upon closer examination, I realized the striped one was there, too.

"How sweet, they're playing together, 

what a happy family..."

wait..

I couldn't figure out why the yellow one kept biting the striped one's neck 

while mom stood guard.

Or what kind of mom bites her child's neck 

while the other child stands guard.

It finally dawned on me that was not mom.

And they were playing alright...

 They were playing a friendly game of

Alpha male/submissive female

I felt {sorta} bad messing with nature, 

but I couldn't help opening the back door and actually asked them

"What are you doing?!"

To which "mom" and "submissive female" ran off in response.

Only this one stayed behind in an attempt to intimidate and stare me down

I guess I ruined the afternoon fun,

I can only hope I ruined it 

before the makings of a new litter of wild cats could be planted.