Sal is a stray cat who lives on my back porch.  We feed her every day.   When I first moved here I fed her because the woman who sold me the place fed her.   After a while I got busy and forgot.  The woman next door feeds all the feral cats in the neighborhood everyday.  I figured that Sal would just eat there with the other strays.  Apparently I was wrong.  When I saw her after a couple of months of not feeding her I could see that she was skin and bones.  Her coat was thin and loosing its color.  She was starving to death.  From that point on I have understood that her life is my responsibility.  Though I have tried to make her a house cat several times, she just can't seem to be indoors with out spraying her urine on stuff.  I fear she is too old to be house broken.  Summer, my girl friend and house mate, bought Sal the little igloo house seen in the photo.  This was so she would have shelter during the cold winter rains.  At first she used it all the time and it was very gratifying.  But then raccoons started hanging around my porch at night.  And since they have been around the igloo, Sal will not go inside anymore.   Fortunately the weather is getting warmer, and we will have few months to figure out how to keep Sal (short for saliva because she drools) warm when the cold weather returns next fall.

April 10,  2001

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"Sal and her home"