NATCHEZ — Marie Gasquet wasn’t a cat person, at least not until she met Charlie.

The small, scruffy and tick-infested kitten showed up at the back of her condo on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and — at the behest of a friend — she decided to keep and bottlefeed him.

“I decided I needed to keep this cat, and that cat changed my life,” Gasquet said. “He was wonderful, and followed me wherever I went.”

It was that positive change Charlie brought in her life that inspired Gasquet to join Ed and JoAnne Phipps in an almost weekly drive to get the kittens at the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society’s shelter placed in permanent homes.

Most Saturdays they set up in front of high traffic business locations — the Natchez Mall, Stine’s and Tractor Supply Company — and show residents cats and kittens eligible for adoption. To date, 157 cats and kittens have been adopted through their efforts.

“In recent weeks, our intake of beautiful kittens has increased dramatically, and this team has increased its efforts,” NACHS President Kathy Fitch said.

“Their efforts have dramatically increased local cat and kitten adoption rates, and resulted in many lives being saved.”

JoAnne Phipps said she and Ed started the cat and kitten adoption days last year after years of being involved in the rescue of community or feral cats.

“Everybody likes to get behind the dogs, but we asked the shelter if there wasn’t something we could do to help them because they had such a high rate of euthanasia for cats,” she said.

In addition to helping get kittens placed, Phipps said they try to take death row cats, have them neutered and find them homes.

In another instance, the Phipps drove 20 kittens to a no-kill shelter that had room for them in Savannah, Ga.

“This last weekend, the three of us found homes for 11 kittens,” Phipps said. “That adds up when you do it every week.”

Gasquet said she likes giving people the opportunity to experience the same kind of happiness she found when she took in Charlie.

“Right now, we have over 40 kittens (at the shelter),” Gasquet said. “When you get a cat adopted, you save its little life, and you also give the family some joy, too. It is a two-way street.

“I have had families come back to me and say, ‘Oh, I love my cat, and I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

This weekend, volunteers with NACHS will have kittens and cats eligible for adoption at the theater entrance to the Natchez Mall, Tractor Supply and Stines.