Oakland TNR Coalition

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Oakland TNR Coalition

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Oakland TNR Coalition is a volunteer-run, foster-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit cat rescue founded in 2019 with a focus on TNVR in Oakland, Pittsburgh and surrounding city neighborhoods.

11/22/2025

We saved Ambrosia’s life once… and now we need to do it again.

Three weeks ago, this gentle old lady was at risk of euthanasia at ACCT Philly due to space. We pulled her just in time and settled her into a warm foster home where she’s been on thyroid meds patiently waiting bloodwork recheck.

Ambrosia hasn’t been eating well. She’s been so painful in her mouth that even soft food has been a struggle. Today, at , we got the update we were hoping not to hear. They found a possible mass in her mouth. It could be severe gum overgrowth from her dental disease and infection or something more concerning, that we won’t even mention. The only way to know, and the only way to relieve her pain, is to get her under anesthesia to remove it, send it out and address the rest of her dental issues.

We didn’t hesitate. If this is what she needs to finally be comfortable, then we’re doing it. She deserves to eat without pain. She deserves to gain weight. She deserves a chance at the life she nearly didn’t get.

She’ll even get a little bath while she’s under and wake up a whole new woman, our sweet Ambrosia 2.0.

But the estimate for her procedure is $1,448.63–$1,908.82, and it’s a huge hit for us right now. We’re already juggling outstanding bills, including Grandma Duchess’s visit yesterday, and our resources are stretched razor thin.

We need help. We can’t give Ambrosia this second chance without you.

If you’re able to donate, anything at all, it genuinely makes the difference between “we hope we can” and “we absolutely can.”

Every dollar, every share, every bit of support helps us keep saving the cats who have no one else. Thank you for fighting for Ambrosia with us.

Givebutter → bit.ly/otnrc_donate
PayPal → paypal.me/oaklandtnrcoalition
Venmo → venmo.com/u/OaklandTNR

Donations can also be called in directly to Rivers Vet for Ambrosia at (412) 998-9030.

11/20/2025

No, you’re not seeing double… and no, these are not the same kittens from Sunday. These are new kittens.😭

The colony’s caretaker texted one of our volunteers yesterday about more babies… that she didn’t mention on Sunday. Thankfully our volunteers were able to hand-snag one in the early evening and trapped the other two later that night. They’re definitely siblings to the first pair (mom really said copy & paste).

Huge shoutout to the foster who took the first two, and stepped up again and said yes to taking these three newbies too, bringing their total to five. Absolute hero. Teamwork makes the dream work!

Ember, the tiny tortie, was spayed on Monday and is just a young girl herself. She’s staying with us for now, she’s still a little overwhelmed but slowly accepting affection (she’ll admit she likes it soon enough). Rogue, one of the older cattens we trapped earlier this week, was neutered today… and surprise! He was cryptorchid. This colony is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

We still have both moms to catch and at least 8+ more cats out there with probably more we haven’t even met yet. The upcoming holiday might slow us down, but we’re determined to keep chipping away at this colony and the L colony one by one.

Want to help us keep going?

Become a foster for a shy kitty who needs a little TLC: bit.ly/otnrc_foster

Donate to support these massive projects:

Givebutter —> bit.ly/otnrc_donate
PayPal —> paypal.me/oaklandtnrcoalition
Venmo —> venmo.com/u/OaklandTNR

Every bit of help keeps us moving forward. Thank yinz for your never ending support.

11/19/2025

Update: WOW! Yinz rock. Not even 2 hours of this post up and we’ve covered the cost of the base. We love y’all. 🥹 If you’d still like to donate, we can always use donations towards medical bills! We’ll be sharing some new kittens later who arrive last night! 🫶🏻

Someone generously donated our Petco kitties a gorgeous new cat wheel. and in true customers-will-be-customers fashion (retail and service industry folks… we know you feel this in your SOUL), someone else promptly broke the base.

If you can’t tell by our extremely realistic, professionally executed, definitely-not-Photoshopped image, it broke before our cats even got a single spin.

The replacement base is $72.08 with shipping and tax. If you’d like to help our kitties finally take this thing for a test drive, we’d be so grateful for a little help covering it!

Givebutter —> bit.ly/otnrc_donate
PayPal —> paypal.me/oaklandtnrcoalition
Venmo —> venmo.com/u/OaklandTNR

11/18/2025

🆘FOSTER HOMES NEEDED IN PITTSBURGH🆘

Our intake kennels are full, new colonies are coming in, and we have several cats who we cannot put back outside. We’re asking our community to step up and open your homes to some incredibly deserving cats.

Our most urgent needs include:

1) A sweet senior boy
This gentle old man showed up to a city caretaker underweight, fighting a rough URI, and clearly struggling outdoors. A local trapper brought him inside and we offered to help but he’s currently stuck in a kennel she desperately needs for the never-ending stream of cats coming through. He’s improving on antibiotics, but he deserves more. We want to get senior bloodwork done this week and place him in a quiet foster home where he can rest, heal, and feel safe again.

2) L Colony teens Lucifer, Leviathan & Legume
These 5–8 month old babies are shy, spooked, and absolutely not built for outdoor survival. Every other teen we’ve pulled from the L Colony has blossomed into a loving little house cat with just a bit of patience and TLC and we know these three will be no different. They can go as pairs or individually. All they need is someone willing to give them a chance.

3) L Colony mystery tom Lorax
Lorax is around 4 years old and shocked us all when he was trapped and unlike most seasoned feral toms (looking at you, evil Leonard), he is calm, quiet, polite, and even slow-blinked at us in the trap. He lets us pet him, keeps his kennel spotless, and we believe he had a home long ago. He’s shy and pathetic but clearly he wants connection. He just needs someone patient enough to show him he’s safe again.

We provide all basic supplies and ongoing support. You provide a safe, loving, temporary home until they’re ready for adoption.

Have an empty spare room, bathroom, or walk-in closet? Or think you “don’t have enough space”? If you have room for a kennel, you can foster.

Our ability to keep helping situations like L Colony and the Southside Slopes Colony depends on freeing up space now.

Apply to foster*: bit.ly/otnrc_foster

*All current pets in the home must be spayed/neutered and UTD on vaccines. OTNRC fosters must be kept separate unless otherwise noted.

11/17/2025

Who said kitten season was over? 😅

Last night, two separate litters from the South Side Slopes came into rescue, a tiny trio and a sweet little pair.

A group of kind folks fixing up houses in the Slopes have been doing their best to help the neighborhood cats. Back in mid-September, we helped them with a mom and her three kittens. At the time, we thought there were maybe four or five more adults around and let them know we could help TNR any females, especially if someone looked pregnant. We were also just beginning the massive L Colony project in Lincoln-Lemington and didn’t have the bandwidth for much more.

Since then, we have brought in a friendly from the street, TNR’d the original mom, and fixed and released another female last week, planning to work through the few remaining cats.

Fast forward to now. We found a caretaker nearby and discovered far more cats than we realized, at least 10, not counting the previous TNRs or these two new litters. While attempting to trap the moms, we also accidentally caught two older cattens, who will be getting fixed this week. We’ll be working hard to get both moms safely trapped and spayed in the coming days, because no moms get left behind!

The good news? After 28 cats trapped from the L Colony, we believe only 5-6 remain. With that project finally winding down, we’re shifting our main focus onto the South Side Slopes colony so no more kittens are born on that street.

As we finish the last few cats from the L Colony and start helping the Slopes cats, many of whom we believe are friendly, we could really use some backup!

What we need most are more foster homes for friendly/workable adults and kittens and donations to cover spay/neuter, supplies, and medical care!

Every bit of support helps us finish these colonies sooner so we can move on to the next request for help in the city!

Foster Application—> bit.ly/otnrc_foster

Monetary Donations:
Givebutter —> bit.ly/otnrc_donate
PayPal —> paypal.me/oaklandtnrcoalition
Venmo —> venmo.com/u/OaklandTNR

11/16/2025

We honestly don’t even have the words to express how grateful we are for this incredible community.

Just days ago, before the second photo was taken, we had one single case of kitten food left and nothing else. We asked for help… and yinz showed up BIG TIME.

Boxes are still trickling in, and some supplies have already gone straight into the hands of fosters who desperately needed them. We are eternally grateful for what this community has become over the last six years, we truly could not do this without you.

To everyone who sent supplies, donated, liked, shared, commented, every single bit of support goes such a long way. This right here is proof of that.

Thank yinz. We love y’all. 🖤

11/15/2025

Sweet senior Tinyboop Squig Shorterly arrived in Pittsburgh last night from Philly, and she is now going by Grand Grandma Duchess, a regal name perfectly suited for the most poised and dignified old lady.

Duchess had a microchip implanted in 2010, and that was the last time it was ever updated. She was brought in as a stray, and no one came looking for her at the shelter. As an elderly girl with medical issues in an overcrowded facility, she was sadly timestamped for this past Thursday.

But today, Duchess is safe, warm, and settling beautifully into her foster home. She has hyperthyroidism, a grade II heart murmur, and likely some arthritis, but her spirit could not be brighter. She’s eating like a champ, purring nonstop, chatting with her foster, and making more biscuits than we thought possible for such a petite grand dame.

She’ll stay on medication to keep her feeling well, and we’ll be exploring arthritis injections to help her move comfortably. Through it all, Grand Grandma Duchess remains sweet, gentle, and endlessly composed fully living up to her new name.

We are so grateful to the volunteer from Reading who rushed to Philly early Wednesday to pull her before her deadline and kept her safe in a spare room, and to the volunteer who then drove her all the way to Pittsburgh. Pulling Philly cats is no small feat and teamwork truly makes the dream work. Duchess wouldn’t be here without it.

And to whoever abandoned this old lady. you didn’t deserve her anyway! She is perfect, she is loved, and we can’t wait to watch more of her personality shine.

If you’d like to support Duchess’s continued care, from her hyperthyroid meds to arthritis treatments, donations are deeply appreciated and make rescues like hers possible!

Monetary Donations:
Givebutter —> bit.ly/otnrc_donate
PayPal —> paypal.me/oaklandtnrcoalition
Venmo —> venmo.com/u/OaklandTNR

11/14/2025

South Oakland lost a legend today.

We got a call about a sick cat in South O, and the moment we saw the photo, we knew it was Bean. She’d been running those streets for YEARS, long before we even knew her. We first TNR’d her in 2021 and brought her in again briefly for a URI, but Bean was fiercely feral, stubborn, independent, and loyal to the only home she ever knew, the streets. If you’ve walked through South O at night, you’ve probably seen her slip from the feeding station or dart under parked cars. She ran those streets like nobody’s business.

She was one of the last survivors of our original Frazier St colony and absolutely on the same legend level as North Oakland icons Hashbrown and Paul. A true beast. A survivor of the kind you rarely see.

At Blue Pearl today, we learned why she didn’t run and why Animal Control and our volunteer Sophia were able to pick her up. She had a large facial mass the vet believes was squamous cell carcinoma, a dangerously low heart rate, and extremely poor overall condition. They estimated she was 10–12 years old, an extraordinary age for a feral cat.

We gave her love and dignity, and let her go peacefully, surrounded by care instead of cold pavement. It was the only humane choice.

Even though she lived life on her own terms, she wasn’t without softness. She had her people over the years, feeders she trusted, even if from a distance. She would always come to the feeding station when one feeder made kissy noises at her. Even in her feral ways, she let that tiny connection shine through.

This photo is from years ago, when we brought her in for treatment during a URI flare-up. It’s one of the few moments we got to see her up close, and we’re so grateful to have it now.

Bean, you ran those South O streets like nobody’s business. You survived things most cats never would. You lived and died a legend.

Thank you to everyone who watched for her, fed her, cared about her, or reached out today and to volunteer Sophia for getting her to the vet. You helped give Bean a peaceful end she would never have had on the streets.

Run free, Bean. South Oakland won’t be the same without you.

11/12/2025

UPDATE: TRANSPORT SECURED! THANK YOU ALL!

🚨 URGENT TRANSPORT NEEDED FROM PHILLY TO PITTSBURGH (or halfway) 🚨

Tinyboop Squig Shorterly, affectionately known as Grandma Tinyboop, is out of time at ACCT Philly. This 15-year-old sweetheart is timestamped for Thursday, November 13th at 10AM. We’ve emailed to tag her for rescue tonight, now we just need someone to help get her here.

Tinyboop was found as a stray and was microchipped, but her info hasn’t been updated since 2010, and sadly no one came for her. Now, this spunky senior with a heart of gold is facing her final days in the shelter unless we can get her out.

She has hyperthyroidism and a mild heart murmur, both manageable with meds and monitoring, but she desperately needs a calm home and continued care that the overcrowded shelter just can’t provide.

She’s been living in a staff office, snoozing on her blankets, chatting with everyone, and purring up a storm. She LOVES attention and pets, and has the softest fur ever.

We’re looking for a driver from Philly to Pittsburgh, or even someone who can cover part of the trip — Lancaster, Harrisburg, Altoona, etc. Any leg helps!

If you can help drive or know anyone traveling west from Philly, please message us ASAP! Let’s get Grandma Tinyboop out of the shelter and into a warm bed where she can spend her golden years loved and safe.

Also, we have temporary placement lined up to get her safe, but if you’d like to foster or adopt her once she arrives in Pittsburgh, please let us know!

11/09/2025

Missed out on our Halloween adoption special? Have no fear, because our Black (Cat) Friday deal is BACK early this year!

Now through December 31, all cats with black in their coat (including our sleek black beauties, tuxedo & cow cuties, and classic torties & calicos) are $20 off adoption fees!

We still have quite a few house panthers waiting (and a few who’ll be ready soon), so check out our available cats on Petfinder and get those applications in while you can!

Petfinder —> bit.ly/otnrc_adoptables
Adoption Application —> bit.ly/otnrcadoption

11/08/2025

🚨 EMERGENCY PLEA FOR FOOD DONATIONS 🚨

Help! We are completely out of cat food!

Right now, we have just one case and 3 small bags of kitten food left and zero wet or dry food for our adults. Our shelves are completely bare.

We currently have 81 cats and kittens in our care, with more trapping scheduled this week at the L Colony, we know more hungry mouths are on the way. We can’t feed everyone without your help.

If you can, please consider donating food directly from our wishlist or sending funds to help us restock ASAP. We know we keep saying it, but every can, every bag, every dollar truly makes a real difference for these cats.

Foster Wishlists:
Amazon —> amzn.to/4c7DMG1
Chewy —> bit.ly/otnrc_chewylist

Monetary Donations:
Givebutter —> bit.ly/otnrc_donate
PayPal —> paypal.me/oaklandtnrcoalition
Venmo —> venmo.com/u/OaklandTNR

Address

Pittsburgh, PA

Telephone

+14122297103

Website

https://www.oaklandtnrcoalition.org/

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How it started

Our journey began with Lydia Swanson, who spent her time volunteering at the Scratching Post - Lewisburg Cat Cafeand the Lycoming County SPCA. She first discovered a small colony of eight cats in Oakland less than a half mile from the core of the University of Pittsburgh's campus. With advice from her local organization, Cherished Cats Rescue Alliance, she began an interesting journey into TNR, taking care of that colony as well as a 45 cat colony.

Lydia then met fellow cat lover, Elizabeth Constantino, who had recently happened upon a litter of five in the backyard of her Oakland residence. Four were returned to mom, leaving her to bottle-raise the fifth, abandoned kitten. With newly opened eyes to the reality the ever-growing population of feral cats, the two founded Oakland TNR Coalition, focused on the scientifically proven humane method: Trap, Neuter, Release.

Today, our mission is to team up with the local residents of Oakland, Pittsburgh to work on population reduction, vetting, and homing of the feral/stray/homeless cats in the community. We hope that you will continue to follow our journey and support us!