Ten Petfinder.com shelters and rescue groups recently received $1,000 grants from Blue Sky Soda and the Petfinder.com Foundation. In honor of National Feral Cat Day, we're spotlighting one grant recipient, Neighborhood Cats, Inc., a Brooklyn, NY-based rescue group using its grant to provide foster and veterinary care for community cats in need, such as formerly stray kittens Watson, Simon and Holmes.

This summer, Neighborhood Cats went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to begin a trap-neuter-return program on a group of cats living in an alley. Within the group were three kittens: two tabbies and their tuxedo brother.

"At seven weeks old, all three were pint-sized tough-guys-in-training," says Susan Richmond, executive director of Neighborhood Cats. "With no humans to look after them, they had to be street-tough just to survive."

The adults and older kittens in the group had grown up outdoors and were too wild to be adopted. They were spayed and neutered, given exams and rabies vaccines, then returned to their home in the alley where feeding stations and snug, all-weather shelters had been set up.

The young kittens -- now named Watson, Simon and Holmes -- were fearful of people too, but still young enough to tame, so Neighborhood Cats arranged for a foster home for them. Then they began the slow process of socializing the cats.

National Feral Cat Day is this Sunday, Oct. 16, and Petfinder is joining with Alley Cat Allies to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and recognize feral-cat caretakers.

Our house came complete with feral cats (also sometimes called community and neighborhood cats) when we moved in, and we have cared for them ever since. (Read about my neighborhood cat colony here.)

In honor of National Feral Cat Day, I'm posting my husband's short video tour of our feral-cat houses, as well as our annual "changing of the straw" to prepare our feral colony for a cold Northeastern winter. After trapping, altering, vaccinating and returning feral cats to their place of origin, maintaining a healthy and safe colony is an important part of our
relationship with neighborhood cats.

Watch our video above and see important tips for keeping a feral-cat colony well-cared-for after the jump.