When Julia Lyon wrote a story about Ed Molloy, a homeless man with "a dying heart" who lived in a shack in Murray, she wasn't surprised by an outpouring of reader interest in Molloy and the homeless. Molloy's death brought into focus the sad plight of aging homeless people.

What stunned her was the number of people who thought the tragic figure in her story was "Mama," Molloy's cat, left, being held by Molloy's homeless pal Ron Manning.

"There's was empathy for the homeless, for sure," Lyon says of the reader response. "But many people were clearly more concerned about the cat — not homeless people."

For the record, Lyon's story was about a proposed facility to house chronically homeless seniors in West Valley City.

Those in their 50s and 60s are often in their final years, battling health issues ranging from diabetes and hypertension to respiratory problems that were left untreated and ignored.
Getting them inside may literally save their lives.

But other readers fixated on Molloy's cat. In fact, a few though Mama might have been their cat at some point in its life.

One reader emailed Lyon:

I was just wondering if Mr. Manning was going to take care of the cat or if he might consider it too much of a burden, since he himself lives in a tent in the woods. I would think someone in that situation would have enough to worry about without another mouth to feed. I would be willing to give “Mama” a good home.

Heaven forbid Mama would have to live in a tent.