Pittsburgh Dish

Good power lines make good neighbors

A tail of rescue on Buena Vista Street

by Peg Dawson

Saturday night in the War Streets was quiet and calm -- if not pretty freakin' humid -- until a loud noise shattered the peace.

No, it wasn't firecrackers. Not unwieldy gunplay.

It was the sound of a very pissed off cat.

The sound caused several neighbors, to step outside to investigate. If errant bullets don't scare us, a cranky cat certainly won't.

And there, stuck about 25 feet up in a tree on Buena Vista Street, was a small orange kitten. The cat, named Amber, ran up the tree after spotting a dog during a rare journey from her nearby home.

She was not happy.

Oh, and she was resting on power lines.

Fearing the possbility of fried feline, neighbors convened to study the problem. Does the fire department even rescue trapped kittens anymore, we wondered? What about the animal rescue folks? Assuming, of couse, they aren't too busy flogging Michael Vick in the basement of the animal shelter.

Being tough War Streeters, we decided to tackle the situation on our own. Seven neighbors--of many shapes, colors and creeds--two ladders, a flashlight, one basket, a bundle of catnip, one bowl of Nine Lives cat food and two hours later, Amber was safely plucked from the tree by one of Buena Vista's bravest.

Our neighborhood united for a good cause. We needed that.

Model: Penelope the Cat, Dish Rat Chaser

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Tonight: Katrina relief benefit in the Strip

Global Beats' Brazilian Carnival Party

Tonight at 9 p.m. at Dejavu Lounge (2106 Penn Ave., Strip District, 412-434-1144) $5 admission donated to hurricane Katrina victims. $5 Caipirinhas ($1 of which goes to hurricane victims).

Information provided by:

Carla Andrea Leininger/Employment and Communications Specialist Hispanic Center, Inc /Supporting the Latino and business community in Pittsburgh! www.pghhispaniccenter.org Tel (412) 322-2716

For other PGH global events visit: www.globalpittsburgh.org

With love from the North Side to New Orleans

Friends and Neighbors: Come hear the New Orleans/Cajun-zydeco band Mon Gumbo this Saturday, Sept. 10 from 9 p.m. to midnight, upstairs at Legends James Street Tavern (422 Foreland St., North Side, 412-231-1333). We are raising money for the American Red Cross to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Please come, donate a measly $20 and celebrate the music of a people of a city that desperately needs our help. Hope to see you there!

(Thanks to PG reporter Diana Nelson Jones for the tip.)

In other local music news...

Local band Kitty Litter will be performing at the Monterey Pub at about 9:30 the same night. It'll be tough to contend with the Katrina benefit but the newly formed rock band could use a little support. James Street and Monterey Pub are about a minute away from each other so why get a little gumbo and some Shepherd's pie?

Help

Dish may be irreverent most of the time but we do have a heart. The following is a list of local and national organizations accepting donations for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Many were reported by Ervin Dyer of the Post-Gazette:

Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund: 1-800-435-7669 or go to www.redcross.org.

The Pittsburgh Foundation: www.pittsburghfoundation.org.

United Way of Allegheny County: www.uwac.org

The Salvation Army of Western PA: Donors are advised to make checks payable to The Salvation Army and list "Katrina" in the memo section. They may be sent to the army's Western Pennsylvania Division, 424 Third Ave., Pittsburgh 15219.

Locally, the United Methodists also have been active in preparing and distributing health care and flood relief kits. The church's Committee on Relief has established a number for contributions: 1-800-554-8583.

The United Jewish Federation is accepting donations online at www.UJFpittsburgh.org or by check, payable to UJF Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief, sent to United Jewish Federation, 234 McKee Place, Pittsburgh 15213.

Brother's Brother Foundation, a North Side-based charity that specializes in international relief, is sending 5,000 pairs of shoes and new clothing and hygiene items. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will help with the distribution. Donations to assist with shipping can be made by calling 412-321-3160, online at www.brothersbrother.org or by sending checks payable to the Brother's Brother Foundation to BBF/Hurricane Katrina, 1200 Galveston Ave., Pittsburgh 15233.

Catholic Charities USA, P.O. Box 25168, Alexandria, VA 22313-9788.

Byzantine Catholics of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh: Checks should be made payable to the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh with the notation "Hurricane Katrina" and mailed to Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, 66 Riverview Ave., Pittsburgh 15214.

Donations can be made online at www.pcusa.org/pda/donate/accounts.htm , or checks payable to the Presbyterian Church (USA) can be mailed to Presbyterian Church (USA), Individual Remittance Processing, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh 15264-3700.

For other donating options, visit the Web site www.networkforgood.org/topics/animal_environ/hurricanes.

The Humane Society of the United States: www.hsus.org (Click on the banner located on our right sidebar).

Bottoms up

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy volunteers put the bright in Brighton Road.

With all the bottoms up this morning on the corner of West North Avenue and Brighton Road, passersby might have checked their watches. Happy hour? So early? But soon after WPC volunteers broke ground on a street side patch of land, it became clear the focus was azaleas not Brandy Alexanders.

On hand was WPC volunteer coordinator Chris Farber who said that the North Side has the highest concentration of community gardens. She said WPC provides plants and landscape design but it's up to volunteers to provide care and feeding of each garden.

Cheers.

Interesting in volunteering? Contact Farber at (412) 586-2324 or cfarber@paconserve.org

Super-sized Small Fries

Behind a truckbed full of 8 ft. long timbers two little voices came out of nowhere, "Can we help, mister, can we help?" Naturally, we grown-ups said no, followed by the grown-up reply, "You're too little."

"Please, we're not looking for money," begged the tykes. "We really wanna help."

The grown-ups agreed and placed a long, heavy 3x5x8 timber onto their four little arms and the two carried the planks into the backyard of a North Side neighbor. Therreus and Trey assisted in a lumber-intensive job and their little faces beamed with pride.

"Can we come back and help out do some more stuff? the half-pints asked. "Yes," we said. "How about you come back and help pick up some litter from the street?" "Ok, ok, we'll come back." Before leaving they offered to share their cache of 100 gumballs. "We ate 3 but we have 97 left."

They returned. And brought help.

Turns out Therreus is a triplet and brought along his two brothers, Thaddeus and Darius. Trey, the oldest of the troupe (second grade) supervised his younger cousins and made sure his clean-up crew adhered to the rules--no bad words, no shouting, no fighting. In ten minutes one area of the street was free of candy wrappers, newspapers and plastic bottles. Between bouts of bickering the four shared their interests. All attend MLK Elementary School and they enjoy art, music, gym, science and library.

"I like homework better than classwork" said Trey. "But classwork is fun I guess."

For their efforts they received $5. "Wow, thanks missus!" they yelled (one gave a hug) and headed down the street to the Family Dollar store.

The North Side has an unsavory reputation for open-air drug trafficking and drug-related shootings. Maybe, just maybe these four kids will make gumballs the new drug of choice.

(Photo: front to back: Thaddeus, Darius, Therreus and Trey)