An (un)Happy Valentines Day Thanks to City of Pittsburgh Animal Care & Control Dept

City of Pittsburgh Animal care and Control Dave Madden

Celebrating Valentine’s Day with peas, melon, and trapping groundhogs to save them from the callous disregard of Animal Care & Control, part of the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department. Callous disregard for the animals, yes. But more importantly, callous disregard for the elderly homeowner who is terrified of animals in her basement. We’ve been negotiating this […]

Honor Earth Day By Cleaning Up A Neighborhood Hosting a Northside Cat Colony

My dear cat folx, the time is here – Earth Day is almost upon us and the clean-up events are rolling out across social media. I didn’t want to be left out in the shade, so I proposed to Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities (PLC) that we organize a little event to clean up the Fort Faulsey […]

30 Most Widely Read Blog Posts from 2021

Here is a list of the most widely read blog posts during 2021 84% of these posts are about the fatal campaign of terror targeting the trans community. One post is from the #AMPLIFY archive, the narrative of a local bisexual woman One post is actually the homepage for our ongoing Cat Food Drive projects. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The End of Pgh Cat Ladies

Kittens Ahoy

This morning, Animal Care & Control showed up at 8 AM and grilled my wife about feral cats, groundhogs, and our household cats. She stood her ground in the face of bullying and intimidation tactics. They claimed it is not legal to feed feral cats in the City (wrong.) They implied our groundhog burrow had […]