Feral cats occupy the gray spaces in our culture, finding refuge and food in the forgotten alleyways of our neighborhoods and inhabiting the indecisive corners of a societal mindset that hasn’t figured out what to do with them yet.

We can’t take back what our species has already done to cats, the thousands of years of quasi-domestication that puts some of them on our warm sofas and leaves others out in the cold. We can only dream about what would really end their suffering: a culture so ingrained with compassion for all species that every creature would be cared for in a way that suits his nature.

Even then, though, the arguments would continue over exactly what that nature is and whether we have the right to manipulate it. Even if everyone could agree on an effective option for reducing feral cat populations—euthanasia, trap-neuter-return, or a combination of both—debates over whether cats should be allowed to wander would linger. The notion that these animals are better off indoors is a given for shelter employees who’ve seen the prolific breeding and suffering that result from an outdoor existence. But for others whose pet cats cry at the window each day, it doesn’t seem so cut-and-dried; many view the cat as a half-wild species whose life is not fulfilled unless he can spend some of it beyond the four walls of his human’s house.

 Read the full feature story and profiles of five cities' feral cat programs.