The cats are all owned by people in the small town. They all have homes to go to. It is just that someone fed one of the cats & put the left over food they didn't want to eat into the trash cans & the lid blew off of one of the cans. It is hard to keep the lid on one of the cans anyhow. When the lid blew off the cats discovered the discarded food. Now they are always checking for discarded food & push the lids off themselves. There is a wonderful spring near the museum with fresh water in it that runs continuously so there is always water for them to drink. I just can't get over how smart these cats are at figuring out how to push those lids off. In this small unincorporated town people let their cats roam free. It is nothing like the bigger cities where you have to keep them leashed.