In addition to a few cats, Ms. Ceruzzi, a state-certified wildlife rehabilitator, rescued some raccoons and a family of opossums. About 20 cats now live in a fenced-in section of Southpoint Park, which opened in 2011.

Ms. Ceruzzi has found others less to be accommodating. When construction began on Four Freedoms Park in 2010 at the island’s southern tip, she was, understandably, denied access. And while the monumental expanse of granite designed by Louis Kahn has become a popular destination, Ms. Ceruzzi said that many of the fauna that once visited are gone, including a family of pheasants and a yellow fox.

Stephen Martin, director of design and planning at Four Freedoms, said that the site was a toxic landfill overgrown with weeds. “It’s true, we’re not putting out Kibbles ’n Bits for anyone, but the memorial is an ecological sanctuary in its own right, with gulls and crabs and cormorants calling our riparian shoreline home,” he said.

Image Barbara Garber, left, and Rebecca Wolf brought food and fresh water to a colony of cats on Orchard Street in Long Island City, Queens. Credit... Karsten Moran for The New York Times

New Yorkers have long cared for strays, in alleys, bodegas and even some of the most rarefied addresses — for many years, a courtyard of the San Remo on Central Park West housed as many as 75 cats. Many of those underwent a practice known as trap-neuter-return. Since the passage of Local Law 59 by the City Council in 2012, that has been the sanctioned method for dealing with the city’s wild cats.

That method has been in practice for years at a colony of two dozen cats at a lot on 37th Street near 11th Avenue in Manhattan. Like so many parcels in and around Hudson Yards, this one is now poised to become part of a 1,005-foot, $3 billion office tower being developed by Tishman Speyer, the real estate firm that controls the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center.

When Corey Johnson, the local councilman, was contacted by the colony’s caretakers, he immediately turned to Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a pro-business group. Those were not the connections he was after, though. She is also a cat fancier.