Lorenzo is a half-Bulgarian, half-American high school student studying in his native Switzerland. As a child, Lorenzo spent his summer vacations in Burgas, where he first encountered the city’s street cats in the courtyard next to his grandmother’s apartment building.

Over the ensuing summers, he came to know many of the cats—calling 50 of them by names given by him and his neighbors. Lorenzo learned their myriad personalities and their family dynamics, and to treat them with respect as intelligent, dignified creatures. He also witnessed a great many of the births, deaths, disappearances, and diseases resulting from their chronic homelessness.