Bedford, New York resident Penny Berk dreams of the day when she can do more than just imagine an animal sanctuary to sustain the local stray cat population. "This thing we do is not for the faint of heart," says Ms. Berk, as she and her 14 cohorts find caring for seven stray cat colonies to be "a heartbreaking thing that just kind of gets to you," she added.
It first got to Community Cat's founder Lynn Mannino eight years ago while out on an evening stroll. She encountered four feral cats and a small amount of food and water soon turned into enough Friskies to fill a trunk, as she realized she wasn't dealing with a cozy little quartet of kittens.
"Within a week," said Ms. Mannino, "those four kitten turned into I don't know how many cats," which left her the queen mother of a colony of felines. Eventually she enlisted the help of an organization called Ally Cat Allies, which advocates that colonies be managed by trapping, vaccinating and neutering each cat before returning them to the colony.
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