For over 15 years, Bruno Ruggeri fed abandoned cats near his home in Kamakura daily.

Depositing fistfuls of dry cat food under bushes and on street corner curbs, Ruggeri would make his rounds late at night, to avoid neighbors who complained of him luring disease-breeding alley cats into their neighborhood.

Though cats are skilled in finding shelter and food, when left on their own, they often suffer from weather conditions, parasites, disease, accidents with car and starvation. Many people feed them on and off, but that's the extent of it. Although largely ignored by politicians and the media, the worldwide feral cat problem, in which Ruggeri and his neighbors played their small part, is serious and growing.