In Natrona Heights, you can call this space off Union Avenue the "purr-fect" place for cats to find help, especially for cats that people have neglected or abandoned on the street.

Through the nonprofit, Homeless Cat Management Team, it's a group mission to get these cats the wrap-around service they need. Margo Cicci is the nonprofit's Vice President.

She took us through the building and showed us all the services, including the space for cat medical care, which can also include surgeries. 

"[They] weigh them, they get shaved, they get their rabies vaccine, and get ready for surgery," she said.

In the clinic area, she said, "cats will be lined up here with our volunteers. They will get their flea meds, dewormer, and nails trimmed."

After any medical procedures, the rescued cats are then moved onto fostering and hopefully adoption. Cicci said that 25 years ago, the Homeless Cat Management Team started with a mission to trap, neuter, and return cats to communities.

"We are the lowest cost spay neuter clinic in the Pittsburgh area," she said.  

Then, about eight years ago, they added a subsection, called the Pittsburgh Cat Adoption Team, to help loving kitties, like Marie, find a forever home.

Cicci introduced us to Maire, who she said, "came into the clinic for trap neuter return, but she was super friendly, and she had a really bad eye infection at the time."

"While we were out trapping, we were finding friendly cats that had either gotten lost or dumped that made their way into a colony, a mom that may have had kittens, and we found that we needed a way to adopt those cats out," Marie recalled. 

It's medical care first, but it's a second shot at living a loving life that drives the Homeless Cat Management Team.

"We are committed to providing them with the medical care they need and giving them above and beyond their fair chance to recover and to have a healthy life after they meet us," Cicci said, "Once you apply, they will work with you to try to figure out who is the best fit for your household."

She said it's a lot of work to get the cats to the point where they can find a forever home.

"A cat that came to you that wasn't in good health that you had to nurture and take to multiple vet appointments and medicate and get them over that hump and then socially get them ready for adoption, to see them get adopted and then thriving in a home, it's why we do it," she said. 

It's that passion that drives the work of a nonprofit on a mission to provide full-circle care for our forgotten feline friends.

Homeless Cat Management Team offers free clinics for feral or community cats once a month. Plus, an additional clinic on the opposite Saturday of the month that's a low-cost neuter and spaying.

To find the nonprofit's Facebook page with the most recent adoptable cats and for information on the upcoming bowling fundraiser, called Pins for Purrs, go to this story at this link.