If I took one home Inside this Fort Myers theater, the cast of CATS meet their namesakes from Cape Coral Animal Shelter.

Outside the theater, a looming problem for felines.

There are an estimated 250,000 feral and community cats on the loose in Lee County alone.

Cape Coral Animal Shelter executive Director Liz MacCauley couches the problem in human terms.

We have people that walk into our shelter every single day with a box of kittens and say, hey, found these kittens.

We don't know where mom's at.

And sometimes six, seven, eight of them at a time.

And it is a crisis.

Between the shelter and the stage is a collaboration, and it's intended to raise awareness about the magnitude of the problem and hopefully inspire people to adopt some of the shelters, kittens and cats.

Since it's what's known as a managed acceptance facility, Cape Coral Animal Shelter can only accept what it has room for.

We are in the process of expanding, though we are getting ready within the next few months to break ground on a 19,00 square foot additional shelter, which is going to quadruple the amount of room we have for cats, whic is going to be really important.

We'll be able to save a lot more.

Shelter capacity treats the symptom, not the cause.

McCauley says there's a pressing need to trap, spay and vaccinate to reduce the feral and community cat population.

There's just not enough programs in the community to get that done.

So we are trying to work with Lee County and some of the vets in the community to to take care of that problem.

ARC Shelter alone is doing at least to trap, neuter release clinics on Sundays, at least two a month.

We're trying to do to just try to get that population down.

Now from the shelter, back to the stage.

Cats also places a premium on production value The set and lighting are sensational.

The costumes reflect each felines unique character with haunting melody and poignant lyrics.

Memory is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest songs.

And directo Amy Marie McCleary choreography perfectly encapsulates cats distinctive movements.

We try to incorporate that in our choreography, in their grace, and then also like sudden movements.

One of the things that's so wonderful about this show as an actor is that you get to use your entire bod to express how you're feeling.

People who don't understand the show sometimes don't realize how powerful it is when they see those emotions expressed with a full physicality.

Metaphorically, cats recognizes the wisdom and heritage contributed to societ by those of a more mature age.

The Jellicle Cats patriarch is the wise and revered Old Deuteronomy.

Bustopher Jones, a 25 pound upper class dandy brings a sense of culture and panache to the jellicles.

But as the aging glamor cat Grizabella, who truly test the jellicle social structure.

She has an older woman, is ostracized.

And sometimes we don't celebrate older women as much as we should.

Grizabella glamour cat Abigail Aldridge plays Grizabella.

She brings a depth of vulnerability, grace and quiet resignation to the role.

Kind of the essence of the show is about acceptance and, as the show kind of goes along, we see Grizabella come back to the group and continue to be rejected until the end, when she sings Memory.

And so that is the message that I'm trying to reach with this production, and how she is allowed to evolve and become something new by the end of the play.