The SueCat #KittenCaboodle Update That You Need

The kitten situation has changed significantly over the past five days. You may remember that I plucked Sun Volt off the deck and into our bathroom where he had a continuous source of kitten chow, clean water, sleep, and human attention. He was joined by one and then two of his littermates (now known as […]

LGBTQ Pride in the Environment … Collecting Your Donated Items #PghGreenPride

LGBTQ Pride in the Environment … Recycling Collection Donate Gently Used Items to Support Pittsburgh Community Groups Thursday, June 20, 2019 4-7 PM Goodwill Store – Lawrenceville * 125 51st Street * Pittsburgh, PA For more information: pghlesbian@gmail.com Your donations of gently used stuff will create financial donations for the participating groups that will receive […]

Safe in my flower box garden?

I’ve been sticking close to home lately. It helps to manage anxiety and sadness to be in a safe, comfortable space. It’s a tradeoff because I feel lonely, but my projects are doing okay – cat food drive is helping a lot of folks, Q&As are booming, and occasionally people offer to come see me […]

Homeless Cats & Urban Residents: A Q&A With the Homeless Cat Management Team

Pittsburgh Cat Food Drive

Last month, we launched a cat food drive to support homeless caretakers in partnership with the Homeless Cat Management Team and CARMAA to support the good folks who are taking care of homeless cats. In that spirit, I reached out to one of the “cat ladies” who has been instrumental in educating me. Last year […]

Ride Like The Wind

Windstorm Pets

That was some kind of windstorm. Our inconveniences were relatively mild. Our electricity went out around 9:30 PM Sunday evening, literally as Bette Midler was performing Where the Lost Things Go on the Oscar broadcast. We decided to head up to bed and also to round-up the critters to be contained in our bedroom with […]

Further Adventures in Being Cat Ladies: Part Deux

When we last visited with our dynamic feline duo, Maylee and Mamma Mia, they had recently been reunited in our second bedroom after a seven week separation. Reunification went a little more quickly than we planned when Mamma Mia escaped our crate, dashed about the room, and landed under the red chair where Maylee had […]

Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again: Further Adventures in Being in Cat Ladies

Feral cats Pittsburgh

We did it. After seven weeks, we finally (re)trapped our feral/homeless female cat, Mamma Mia, and reunited her with her female bonded companion, Maylee. They are both in our second bedroom with access to food & water, comfortable temperatures, and no fears of being hit by a car, attacked by another animal, etc. They are […]

Pittsburgh Wildlife Strategy & Urban Residents: Q&A with Scrap the Trap

In the past week, we’ve seen a groundhog in our yard, a raccoon on our back porch, and our regular opossum visitor. None of this is new. But it is early and as we are in the process of trapping, neutering/spaying & releasing feral cats, so this creates some challenges. Some of our neighbors have […]

Scrap the Trap Rescued an Orphaned Racoon in Our Pgh Neighborhood

I stepped outside on the stoop and a woman sitting in her car told me a raccoon was ‘on the loose’ and might bite me. So I stepped back into the house and decided to call my neighbor with ‘Scrap the Trap – Pittsburgh.’ A few minutes later, I was tracking an obviously terrified young […]

Riding Out Hurricane Andrew: 25 Years Later

As I’m watching the media coverage of the impact of Hurricane Harvey, I keep flashing back to my experiences with Hurricane Andrew. In August 1992, I had just relocated to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for graduate school. I knew exactly one person, a classmate from undergrad. I wasn’t especially enamored of post-graduate work and not especially […]