I often make friends with cats in my neighbourhood, especially on my walks.

This little darling, who we named Porqita (little one in Spanish) was a very timid kitty who I would sometimes see in my backyard.  Over time she grew to trust me, until finally she was happy to come in the house, and jump up on my desk when I was working as she is here.

Eventually, I think it was over a weekend, she stayed at the house completely and I thought to myself "Oh I have a cat".  I decided that I was going to have to buy pet food on the way home to make sure she wasn't going hungry.  As I left for work on Monday morning, I had to make her go outside, and she was upset with this, especially as I, very gently, kept her from coming back in with my foot.

On the way home that night I bought some food, and got home but she wasn't there.  Actually she never came to visit me again, I caught one or two more glimpses of her, but she never trusted me again.  In her world I must have been rejecting her, forcing her out of my territory.

Such a shame, because she was unbelievably sweet and soft.  Of course, if she had stayed I wouldn't have gone to London when I did, and my life would have been perhaps very different now.

Anyway she is here as a representative of all the neighbourhood cats who have become my friends.  Alas if only they weren't such killing machines.