Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities’ project helps cat folx keep the strays they care for and their own pets healthy

Sue Kerr loves cats and especially the stray cats living in Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhoods and adjacent communities that she and a community of people care for daily.

She’s equally passionate about the people who care for them, whom she calls “cat folx” to avoid gendered language and include cat people’s racial and ethnic diversity.

So the blogger and activist who established Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities in 2021 leads a variety of programs in what she calls the Manchester Community Cat Garden. It fits her organization’s mission – to raise community awareness and promote grassroots engagement for neighborhood quality of life, animal welfare, anti-poverty and LGBTQ+ issues in Western Pennsylvania – and solves a critical need as the cost of pet food continues to rise and the caretakers need assistance.

The effort that started in September 2023 includes a pantry, and Kerr and her neighbor and “co-conspirator,” Marie Krupinsky, collect donations to keep it filled. The pantry is physically located in Krupinsky’s home. They distribute first to cat colony caretakers, Trap Neuter Return feeders and then modest-income pet owners. 

“The objective of all these projects is to support the neighbors who help animals,” Kerr wrote in an email. “We did a trial run of the pantry idea in 2022 and learned a lot. For example, folx who feed cats that are not their pets typically don’t qualify for traditional pet food pantries. They also want to avoid visibility for fear of consequences either by officials or neighbors.” 

Pittsburgh City Council last month expanded its program to have cats and dogs neutered for free in 2025, but the program will only apply to low-income residents for dogs; no limits on income applies to cat owners, according to a TribLive article. Households can have no more than two pets spayed annually, but the program makes allowances for pets that have litters of puppies or kittens that need to be spayed. The city selected Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh to provide the service.

It will assist residents who trap stray cats. They must be registered and assure officials that the cats caught in the city will be released in the same area. Trappers will be able to get up to 30 cats spayed or neutered each year, up from the five currently permitted per trapper annually.

In February the program had been placed on hold, according to media reports, because the city said suburban residents had used fake city addresses to gain access to free spaying. That created a gap in service for residents, something Kerr has worked on to solve in a number of areas for more than 20 years, according to her organization’s website.

Trained as a social worker, she knows how to solve problems, connect people with programs and find community partners for her efforts.

The pantry is a labor of love for her, named in memory of her lifelong friend John Ruffing, a West Mifflin resident and veterinarian who practiced in that borough, Pleasant Hills and other offices. He died at 41 in 2007.

“People loved Dr. Ruffing because Dr. Ruffing loved their pets,” Kerr wrote on her organization’s website. “Without a doubt, each one was in his heart to the point that the emotional weight of his work was challenging. But he was born to be a vet; he was a modern incarnation of St. Francis of Assisi.”

He was also Kerr’s neighbor and her prom date. In addition to his love for pets, “He was the second out gay man I met. Then he taught me how to live my own queer life out and authentically.”

Although he was a dog man, Kerr wrote on her blog last month, he did like cats, too. “As I now haul 20 bags of food up and down stairs or spend hours trying to drum up donations, I think of him and smile,” she continued in the post. “He would hate the attention on him but appreciate helping people. John appreciated good nutrition, of course, but he was never a snob when people couldn’t afford higher end foods. He always told me that the dog or cat who was hungry was better off fed.”

And that is exactly what Kerr and her community do. Right now 26 residents from North Side neighborhoods come and collect cat food on their designated week. She said 50 people are registered, and the pantry’s outreach has spread to Ross and McKees Rocks. 

The two leaders select the needed food items participants need and label them, preparing them for pickup on Sundays. For now they travel to the food pantry and have until Saturday to retrieve them from the patio boxes outside Krupinsky house. If they can’t make it by then, they will hold the bags for them, or they are returned to the pantry.

A patron loaned Kerr a Range Rover – dubbed St. Gertrude, the reported patron saint of cats, or Gertie – but right now it is being used more for storage instead of direct deliveries.

Kerr said the push for donations comes from cat food costs going up.  She knows this firsthand from buying food for her own cats – and she meets the city regulations on the number, Kerr stressed – that has steadily increased.

“I used to be able to buy 24 cans of Fancy Feast for $14. Now it is $21 or $22. The medium-size dry food, 15 to 22 pounds, is now in the upper $20s, low $30s,” she said. “Our goal is to support the people who support the cats.”

The project feeds cats in the colony Kerr maintains known as Fort Faulsey. Previously two neighbors started feeding cats in their backyard, and when they moved to New Zealand, Kerr took over and walks up the block daily to feed them there. Some come to her backyard, too, which she calls the colony’s branch campus.

“They came here to eat and were hanging out,” Kerr explained. “It’s all one big colony, but Fort Faulsey is the main feeding station. The cats move back and forth. We have trail cameras, so we can see what’s going on there.”

Some of those cats are friendly; others are not. Frequently they need dental care, a common issue with stray cats, and other treatments.

Those health issues can pose a problem for Kerr and Krupinsky. They have to keep them away from their cats, and although they have taken some in and kept some, space is tight.  So they reach out to others, normally through Facebook, to see if anyone has room for another animal and can possibly foster it for a while.

Kerr trapped her first cat in 2018. “We connected with people, learned as we went. Literally it became a magnet. We realized the significant need of homeless, domestic animals and urban wildlife, too.”

She said any trapping must involve planning for space to keep them until they can be rescued and other reasons. Once a cat is neutered, Kerr continued, they can be placed pretty quickly. But she stressed, “We are not a rescue. We do trap the cats. Our colony is stable, so no kittens here.”

Kerr said most veterinarians help the project, including Northside Veterinary Hospital in Chateau, and if they are unable to treat the cat for free they offer discounted prices. “That’s fantastic because if we find a cat, we pay out of pocket,” she added. “One thing I have down is how to crowd fund for an animal.” The latter normally means targeting the neighborhood the stray cat frequents and explaining how everyone will benefit from a vaccinated and altered cat with access to food and water.

Dok Harris has been a member of the organization’s board since the beginning, but he met Kerr when he ran for mayor in 2009 and she interviewed him. He grew up with his late father, Franco Harris, and mother, Dana, on the North Side’s Mexican War Streets and still owns a house there.

He said the board supports the project. Because of the constraints on his time as he runs his late father’s businesses, including Super Bakery Inc., his contribution is mainly behind the scenes and financial. Harris said this project absolutely fits with the organization’s mission.

“She comes up with ideas,” Harris said. “I saw this as a great idea.”

He is a cat owner, with two rescues living with him in his Shadyside home. Jackson came from an adoption event at a Pittsburgh pet store and had respiratory illnesses. On the third visit in the kitten’s young life, the vet diagnosed anxiety issues and handed him another cat for company, whom he named Nipsey. They have been with him since 2010. 

Harris said Kerr is driven and the force behind this project. “I know Sue takes a very active role in her community to make sure the strays are well taken care of and makes sure at least some of them get a home,” he said. For that, he normally contributes at the end of the year to keep it all running.

“She walks the talk, which I always appreciate,” he said. “I like being involved with individuals who care and inspires others to care as well.

Kerr dreams of a free pet store to add to the project, but it’s something that is in the beginning stages and one project that Harris – who also is a lawyer – said the board will have to consider possible liability before establishing one.

Casandra Armour, who lives in Marshall/Shadeland, helped Kerr with graphic design work because she admired what she was doing with her organization and later the cats. She learned about it how others have, through the North Side neighbor network and social media.

“I’ve been following her blog forever,” she said, explaining it began 20 years ago when she worked at the now closed Images bar, designing posters and menus and booking bands in addition to her bartending duties. When Kerr placed an SOS for a graphic designer, she volunteered.

She designed the logo for Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities, of course adding in a black cat, and a sign for the cat folx program used as markers.

Armour loves animals, and the home she shares with her partner and teenager daughter includes Millie, a young pit bull, and two cats, Toby and Krusty. But her connection to stray cats started when she rented an Observatory Hill home in 2015.

She started feeding a couple of strays and realized with her neighbor that they were all feeding the cats. Then came a litter of kittens. So they sought help and managed to trap some and get them into homes, with a few staying in the neighborhood. Animal Friends gave them advice on how to trap the main cat, which kept evading them. First, “We caught a gopher and some raccoons,” Armour said, noting the cat food drew them. “Everything but the cat.”

Armour said through that nonprofit she learned how to build a shelter correctly. She had first created one using an old cooler and adding in old clothing for bedding. Animal Friends told her the material could be a magnet for bugs that could harm cats.  She picked up bales of hay from it to use instead, which worked.

All of it helped her understand Kerr’s stray cats work and its much larger scale. “It’s just neat what she attempts to do,” Armour said. “It’s a large labor of love.”

That extends to Kerr adding warming pads to the stray cats’ shelters, she said. Motion activates the battery-operated pads. “She looked into what is safe,” she added. “It’s crazy. It’s beautiful.”

The City of Bridges Community Land Trust communication and marketing manager inherited Toby in 2021, and she also understands the attachment to cats. And that extends to animals. When her prior dog died in 2023, the cat missed him. So, “We got a cat from Pittsburgh CAT. Another fantastic organization, too.” 

Right now Kerr is seeking donations ahead of the winter months to keep the project running.

“During the holidays we to bring awareness to take care of expenses that are on the rise, especially pet food when you are feeding a lot of cats,” Kerr said. “They also have to take care of winter expenses, such as heating their homes. So [by helping provide free pet food] we want to help take care of that.”

She also has another deviation in mind as the cold weather starts. Kerr said the pantry will give participants enough food for December and January in case of bad weather.

Donations can be food items and other supplies – wet and dry cat food, treats, paper plates and bowls, chemical hand warmers – or cash.  Drop off locations for the goods and links for monetary contributions are listed on the website.

The permanent drop off locations for donations: 1213 W. North Ave., Pittsburgh 15233 (steps) and 1440 Faulsey Way, Pittsburgh 15233 (backyard address). The links for cash donations: GoFundMe bit.ly/GivePghCatFolx, Venmo Venmo @PittsburghLGBTQ or PayPalCharities bit.ly/PayPalPLC.