toledoblade.com --

It's 7:15 a.m. and the porch critters have been fed.

Unlike some people who get up in the morning and start the coffeepot or open The Blade, or both, I march right to the front door.

There, without fail, are cats looking up for the lady who feeds them. I don't know if they have been there all night or hear my feet hit the floor upstairs and scurry to the feeding station.

By whatever means, they know when it's time to line up. The strays that gather are in all sizes and colors.

Marmalade, named for his coloring, is obviously a throwaway that at one time lived in a house. He would like to come into my house, but I have resisted. Three are more than enough and we are getting closer to downsizing to two as Sullivan's condition worsens.

I admit that my caring for animals sometimes becomes overwhelming. I worry about them when I am late getting home, and I pay someone to feed them when I travel.

Buying the food is a major consideration as the prices of canned and dry pet food are escalating. When I do find a real deal on an off brand, even the strays turn up their noses, making me wonder what is in the food that even they can't eat because I toss a lot of scraps on the cookie sheet along with regular food.

This morning I see they left some of the rice and bread scraps brought home from a restaurant. They may be called doggie bags, but at this house they are kitty bags. I don't hesitate to ask friends at the table for donations to bring home. Yesterday's take that included barbecued pork was outstanding. Mixing the leftovers with a little canned and dry food becomes a stew for the cookie sheet and saves money on commercial food.

Patty and Marmalade are regular cookie-sheet diners, but newcomers arrive as word spreads through the feline network. Three weeks ago a mother cat brought two small kittens to the porch. You might know, they were the cutest kittens I have ever seen. She put the kittens under the porch but stayed near the door crying for food for herself.

How can you turn your back on such a plea for help from an innocent animal? I can't and now her kittens are large enough to come to the cookie sheet themselves.

For those of us who care about animals, almost to a point of being ridiculous, it's not easy to curb or curtail the need to help. It just grows. Last night and again this morning a large gray-and-white cat was new to the gathering. I hope its girth is not an indication of pregnancy, but that it is well fed and has a home.

Or perhaps it was abandoned, which is an increasing problem when families cannot afford to feed their cat or dog. It would be much more humane to feed them table scraps, the common practice before we became so hooked on commercial products. I could never abandon an animal. In fact I am having major heartache getting the courage to take Sullivan for the last shot.

I have taken the 16-year-old, six-pound cat to Dr. Nancy twice to be "put to sleep" and twice we have returned home. She assures me it's fast and humane. Two friends have volunteered to take him. But just when I decide it's time, he jumps up in my lap, purrs loudly, and arches his bony skeleton to be petted. That's when I cook some chicken, his favorite food, and wonder who is sicker, the old black cat or me.

Mary Alice Powell is a retired Blade food editor.

Contact her at: mpowell@theblade.com.