Last Saturday was the ceremonial start of the 48th annual Iditarod, the 1,000 sled dog race across Alaska. How ironic that a day devoted to dogs turned into a morning all about cats at our house.

It all started with a text from a neighbor, warning us to keep our dogs inside because a lynx family was hanging out in his back yard. This was big news: lynx sightings are rare, even though we live on their turf. We jumped to the window and, sure enough, four cats were feeding on something in the corner between our back yards. Clark thinks it was a mother with three nearly-grown kittens. Three of the four are visible here:

It wasn’t long before one of the cats started to stalk diagonally across our yard, straight towards our chicken coop. Clark crept out back to make sure the birds were safe, and fortunately the coop did its job and protected the hens. The lynx gave up and slinked off without any interference from us.

Meanwhile, one of the kits walked up the opposite property line, and I was able to get a few close up photos from our living room window:

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Eventually all four of them gathered in the back corner again, finishing their snack (we later learned it was a snowshoe hare) before wandering into the wilderness.

Later that same day we also saw moose, eagles, and an owl! A purrrrty good day for Alaskan animal lovers!