50 Plus 1 To Grow On: Pandemic Birthdays, Milestones, and Community Cats

I turned 50 years old on October 22, 2020. Our big plan to celebrate with a weekend spa trip – something I would ordinarily never do – were postponed. And I was bummed, but resigned. I had hoped to ‘make it up’ this year before 50 slipped further away from me, but that’s not going […]

The #DavisGirl Kittens are Sick/Our Community Cat Colony Feeding Station was Just Dismantled Without Consent

Dead Groundhog

So OMG, right? Hand tight, this post is crazy. I have sad news, uplifting news, a twist, and an ask. Here’s the twist – we came home from our feral cat colony yesterday and found another dead groundhog in our backyard. PLACED in our backyard by someone, likely poisoned like the one from July. Well, possibly […]

Update on the #DavisGirls Foster Kittens from Pittsburgh’s Northside

These three six-week-old kittens from #AlleghenyWest had a rough start with limited food sources and Mama bullied by other community cats. I trapped them last week over the course of five nights. Sticking with my soap opera names, I dubbed these the Davis Girls, referencing the nickname for the adult daughters of Alexis Davis on […]

Help Find a Sick Cat on the Northside

I don’t have a photo because this little one is artful at the dodging. BUT there’s a little kitty on the Northside who is on her own and needs to be trapped for veterinary care. She’s clearly underweight according to those who have seen her. There’s no visible colony near where she lives. We have […]

Caturday Update – My Community Cats Slowly Return to Colony After Their Home Demolished

Feral Cats

It has been a tough week. The house that was home to my community cats and in face, many generations of cats, was demolished after the roof collapsed. That was a necessary action, but it brought to light the systemic failures that compromise the City’s own laws. But that’s a post for another day … […]

Tour a 1900 Manchester Home the Night Before It Is Demolished

Travails of the Yinzer

My friend Ed wrote this on his blog Travails of the Yinzer. This house has been empty for 20 years and home to many, many generations of cats and groundhogs and possum and some humans here and there. Miss Maryjanes haas. They are tearin dahhn Miss Maryjanes haas today. I stopped in for one last […]

Reentry

This week, my wife officially returned to her offices. She had been working from our kitchen table since March 18, 2020 with some occasional trips to her workspace. I hate it. I’m glad she’s working, obviously. Also glad it’s safe enough to return. And I should be glad I can watch streaming things without headphones […]

Outcomes from #ManchesterCatTrap and a Plea for Help

feral cat clinic

I’ve been mulling over how to write this post, a ‘report out’ from our recent cat trapping and pet food distribution event. So let me jump ahead to yesterday, July 6. I was going through the invoices and feedback forms to compile some solid information. I checked Facebook and saw that a neighbor on the […]

Someone Stole My Cat Trap

Since I moved to Manchester in 2005, we have had many annoyances but rarely problems with porch pirates – we’ve had deliveries to our stoop, items dropped off to the side of the stoop and no problems. Until today. Today someone stole my favorite cat trap, my old faithful, the first trap I ever bought […]

Cat Lady Mean Girls

“I’m not wearing a fucking mask to make other people feel better if they don’t want Covid then they should go get the vaccine.” So this woman runs a local rescue called Save Our Strays. When she wanted to volunteer with our TNVR event, she kept insisting she wouldn’t wear a mask even though we […]