ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Pinellas County couple are dedicating their lives to making sure stray cats get to live out all nine lives.

Todd and Carolyn Stephens are weekend trappers on the hunt for cats and kittens. But this kind of trapping is humane and saving lives.

"Part of what we do when we do the trapping, we’re looking at each cat and kitten and seeing if there’s any health issues, injuries, anything that needs to be taken care of," said Carolyn.

It all began about three years ago.

"An elderly neighbor that used to feed 20-30 cats," Todd said, explaining how the organization started. "She passed away. Then all of a sudden these cats were taking over the neighborhood."  

Todd and Carolyn are part of a non-profit organization called Meow Now.

It's mission to humanely reduce the free-roaming cat population in Pinellas County by providing targeted trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) caregiver support.

"We bring food that we put inside a trap," Carolyn said. "It has an open door and they smell the food and they're hungry and they walk in and the door just gently closes behind them."

An effort to control the free roaming cat population experienced by pretty much all neighborhoods.

The cats are then returned to their outside colonies and the kittens and cats that can be are put in foster care and put up for adoption.

Todd and Carolyn have always loved animals but Todd's preference was altered a bit by her.

"It started out with dogs actually when I was a kid," he said. "Switched over to cats when I got married to Carolyn."

"I convinced him," she said.