At first glance, this brain teaser looks simple. Most people quickly spot nine large black cats and assume that must be the answer. But there’s a catch: the puzzle contains more cats than the obvious figures suggest, so you’ll need to look much more carefully.

The trick is that several smaller kittens are hiding in front of or around the larger cats. Their shapes blend together, making them easy to mistake for part of a bigger cat. Instead of focusing only on the largest figures, examine the eyes, ears, outlines, and smaller shapes throughout the image. A quick glance can easily cause you to miss the hidden kittens.

This puzzle shows how our brains naturally focus on the largest and most noticeable objects first. When several shapes overlap, we tend to group them together rather than examine each individual figure. That is exactly what makes this challenge harder than it first appears.

If you counted nine cats, you weren’t alone. The puzzle is designed to make the smaller kittens difficult to notice. “The answer is 13 cats,” meaning there are four hidden cats waiting to be discovered.

Take another careful look at the image and see whether you can find all four kittens. The next time you face a visual puzzle like this, slow down and examine every detail instead of trusting your first impression. Sometimes the smallest shapes are the ones that make the biggest difference.