By CATHY DYSON

Louise Ravert started helping feral cats in her neighborhood four years ago, after she got the blessing of her homeowners group, the Falls Run Community Association.

She trapped about 30 cats and had them spayed or neutered. Then, she released them around Falls Run, a 55-and-older community off U.S. 17 in Stafford County.

Using donations from neighbors, Ravert paid for surgeries and vaccinations against rabies and feline diseases.

Ravert also has been active at the Fredericksburg Regional SPCA, where she's an "excellent volunteer," said Debra Joseph, executive director. "I know she especially loves the cats."

But now, the 67-year-old Ravert is doing battle with the homeowners association. Debbie Sutton, the property manager at Falls Run, claims Ravert has violated four sections of the code by having a cat feeder in the front yard and a cat shelter beside the house.

Ravert is challenging the charges and will have the equivalent of her day in court on May 19. She and her husband, Harry, will present her case before seven members of the covenants committee.

"I just think it stinks," Ravert said. "I think it's my right to feed the stray cats."

Sutton wouldn't comment. The paperwork she gave Ravert outlined the violations: that the roaming pets are a noisy nuisance, that they emit foul and obnoxious odors and create an unsightly or unkempt condition, and that feeding wildlife is not allowed.

The charges don't pertain to feral cats. Instead, they deal with about four strays she has been feeding since the fall.

Ravert believes the cats were pets, turned out by their owners or dropped off at the community. They're used to human contact and not wild.

They didn't appear to be eating regularly, so Ravert put a feeder in her front yard last year. Tucked behind shrubbery, it's less than 3 feet wide and 2 feet high and looks like a small toy box.

She puts food in the box during the day only. If she left out food at night, or put the feeder in the back yard, she says it would attract raccoons from the nearby woods--and she doesn't want to do that.