Animal Issue 2021
Foster dogs, pet pigeons, and a rescue who might have eaten its previous owner, oh my! This year’s Animal Issue is featuring stories about pandemic pets, local shelters, veterinarians, and tips for leaving your pet at home while you return to work. • How Pittsburgh animal shelters weathered the pandemic • Meet Pittsburgh’s pigeon whisperer:…
How to keep your pet happy and healthy after your return to work
After over a year of remote work, many pet owners are finding it difficult returning to the office and leaving their animal companion home alone, especially if they were adopted during the pandemic. Pittsburgh City Paper staff understands this issue as keepers of dogs, cats, and even a tarantula. We put together a list of…
Why this Pittsburgher says fostering pets is not only necessary, but rewarding
Closing the door to my bedroom was kind of an afterthought. It’ll be quieter. He’s in a dog crate. He’ll be fine. His name was Diesel. He was 3. His previous owner must have named him to be ironic. You see, he wasn’t a rottweiler, or a doberman, or some other bear of a dog.…
Meet Pittsburgh’s pigeon whisperer: Kim Garrett
Pigeons are often seen as pests and occasionally subjected to cruel treatment by humans But Kim Garrett wants to challenge your perceptions of these city birds…
How Pittsburgh animal shelters weathered the pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic shifted so much of the world, and for many places, brought things to a grinding halt. But not animal shelters, where things went into overdrive. Thanks to spiking demand for adoptions and fostering, animal shelters in cities across America — including Pittsburgh — saw very busy times while complying with gathering restrictions…
For the lizard-curious, leopard geckos are an ideal pandemic pet
As people spent increasing amounts of time at home during the pandemic, cuddly and furry friends became common additions to families and homes. But for Laura Girvin, the pandemic brought a chance to introduce her partner to a new kind of pet: lizards. After Girvin and her partner’s hamster passed away early in the pandemic,…
Increased demand for pandemic pets created increased demand for pandemic vets
Demand for pets shot up during the pandemic as many people found themselves at home with more time and fewer activities. But with new furry, scaly, and feathered friends in people’s homes, veterinarians were hit with increased demand for services, all while trying to navigate shifting CDC safety guidelines over the course of the last…
How I learned to stop worrying and love my rescue dog
“We think she may have eaten a person.” This is usually how I introduce Villanelle, the dog my husband and I adopted in January 2020. She swept into our lives as mysterious as her namesake: the deadly, yet magnetic assassin in the TV show Killing Eve. An overseas rescue from Kuwait, her papers divulged little…
