Very fun idea, especially for an animals jam game.
I think the basic game loop is pretty great. It feels really good to go and fetch the kittens one by one and bring them back to the basket and have them drop in there. For some reason it does seem that there is a slight delay in catching a kitten and seeing it in your mouth though, which starts to matter in higher levels.
The main critique I would give is that there should be some sort of time increase as levels increase and there are more kittens to gather up.
I do like how you've incorporated score and even the pounce move into the gameplay!