Skinny, battle-scarred cats prowl many neighborhoods, scavenging in garbage cans and dumpsters. Some people call them "strays" and others call them "free roaming" cats or "ferals." Some were born outside and have never had owners. Others once had owners but were dumped or set free to fend for themselves.

They break the hearts of people who love cats. They irritate or enrage people who don't love cats, for they may spray urine on porches and lawn furniture. They can be very noisy when they fight or mate, and they reproduce at a prodigious rate. A few stray cats can quickly grow into a colony of dozens of felines.

There's no quick fix to this problem, but there are many caring people who are trying to help. Dawn Riedel and her daughter, Kayla, stepped up to help the cats in their Moon Township neighborhood.

"There were always a lot of stray cats," Mrs. Riedel said. "At first we just put food out for them."

Then they became involved in the trap-neuter-return program operated by the nonprofit Homeless Cat Management Team.

Cats are trapped in a humane box trap, taken to a clinic to be neutered under a free or low-cost program, inoculated and then returned to where they came from. Then people like the Riedels, who are known as colony caretakers, provide the cats with food, water and supervision.

The cats, hopefully, have a better life than they would without caretakers. A major goal is to prevent the birth of more kittens who will grow up to have more kittens.

In the past three years, Dawn and Kayla Riedel have done the trap-neuter-return program with 40 cats. Their neighborhood is not inundated with cats. Currently there is one neutered male who relies on them for food.

The life of an outdoor cat is short and difficult, according to people who study these things. Outdoor cats die from disease or are killed by motor vehicles, other cats or raccoons and other wild animals.

So even though you put some time and effort into helping these cats, they die sooner rather than later. How does a cat lover cope with this?

"It's sad, but you don't want them to suffer," Kayla said. "You do the best you can to help them."

Kayla, 17, is using her participation in the trap-neuter-return program as the senior project she needs to graduate from Moon Area High School in June.

Since last summer, she has worked at four clinics run by the Homeless Cat Management Team.

Each one lasts five hours, and Kayla does everything from filling the syringes used in inoculations to weighing cats before surgery, helping in the recovery room and cleaning cages.

Kayla will write a paper about her work in the cat program, and she'll make an oral presentation to teachers in April.

By the way, Kayla has three pet cats -- Cody, Whiskers and Bam -- who never leave the house. Whiskers and Bam are the offspring of stray cats.

Kayla found Bam as a newborn abandoned on a hillside. She and her mother bottle fed the baby around the clock, which is no easy task.

Her written report includes information about where people can go for help.

People must sign up in advance with the Homeless Cat Management Team to reserve space for the cats you trap.

Call 412-321-4060 or go to www.homelesscat.org to make an appointment. Since 1998, HCMT has neutered more than 10,000 cats.

If the cats you own, love and cherish are producing litters of kittens, you may be part of the problem.

Kayla suggests contacting the Animal Friends shelter in Ohio Township for information about its low and reduced cost neutering program. The number is 412-847-7000.

For those of you who surf the Internet, don't forget to check out the online-only Pet Tales Journal blog.

Recent entries include low-tech flea-control solutions offered by readers on Jan. 16 and a list of "average fees" for high-cost procedures and surgeries on Jan. 18.