{"id":800394,"date":"2026-05-16T10:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/800394\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:53:19","slug":"phillys-cedar-park-neighborhood-and-its-cat-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/800394\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly\u2019s Cedar Park neighborhood and its cat culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia region has more cats than any of the country\u2019s 15 largest metro areas according to numbers from the 2020 Census. That translates to 568,000 households in the Philadelphia metropolitan area reporting that they own a cat<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And while these cats are clearly spread across the city and into the suburbs, West Philadelphia\u2019s Cedar Park neighborhood, with its many indoor\/outdoor cats, shop cats, feral cat colonies, and a dedicated all-volunteer cat rescue group, has many feline features.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A toddler on-leash pauses to pat a Cedar Park cat. (Hanbit Kwon\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Accessible by SEPTA\u2019s T2 (34) and T3 (13) trolley lines, Cedar Park is best known for its commercial corridor along Baltimore Avenue. Bounded by Larchwood Avenue to the north, Kingsessing Avenue to the south, 46th Street to the east, and 52nd Street to the west, Cedar Park features Victorian and Queen Anne-style architecture with large, and sometimes even wrap-around, porches that celebrate its status as an early streetcar suburb.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s the rambling homes, often built above street level with accessible crawl spaces beneath, that create the perfect conditions for stray cats to nest. Or maybe it\u2019s the caretaking vibe of the neighborhood that encourages the proliferation of so many cats. These cats range from feral and strays to pet cats that live indoors but also stroll outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A feline fixture in Cedar Park<\/p>\n

One indoor-outdoor feline neighbor, named Huckle after the storied cat in Richard Scarry\u2019s picture books, has been a fixture on Springfield Avenue for nearly two decades. Now in his senior years, Huckle still patrols the street from the relative shade of his porch. If you approach and call his name, he might eventually toddle down the steps to swipe his tail around your legs while \u201cmrowing\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many years, you could find Huckle positioned in the dead center of the sidewalk directly outside of his home. A brazen and unruffled fellow, Huckle holds his position despite any oncomers; requiring pedestrians, baby strollers, and even dogs to reroute onto the grass to pass by. Using your body to hold down your turf is the cat version of \u201csavesies<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Huckle holds down the fort outside his home on Springfield Avenue. (Hanbit Kwon\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

An unofficial block captain of sorts, Huckle is so beloved by his neighbors that his dad Andy recently made photo t-shirts bearing Huckle\u2019s face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those without pets of their own, a friendly street cat can stand-in as a surrogate. If you\u2019re patient and lucky, you might even have the chance to encounter that rush of joy that comes from running your hand along the spine, or beneath the chin, of a willing cat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If feral, a cat will let you know its status immediately by taking cover within a shrub or beneath a porch. A less-skitish cat might let you know that it\u2019s actually a pet, or at least not so adverse to people, by either approaching you or allowing you to approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Pumpkin, a prolific hunter with a wide home range, wears a high-visibility collar with bells to help protect the native wildlife. (Hanbit Kwon\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Neighbors come to the aid of stray cats<\/p>\n

To address the proliferation of feral cats in West Philly, West Philly\u2019s Project MEOW<\/a> (Make Every One Wanted) was founded in 2007 as an all-volunteer cat rescue group to support feral cats and those who might eventually be adopted as pets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the support of a devoted network of more than 100 volunteers and foster homes, Project MEOW helps West Philadelphia residents with the homeless cat population through the Trap, Neuter, Return and Manage process that\u2019s designed to limit reproduction. THe group also provides support and resources to caretakers of cat colonies, and facilitates the care and adoptions of friendly, abandoned cats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"On rare occasions, and after repeat encounters, some West Philly streetcats are ok being held. (Hanbit Kwon\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

A happy ending for a West Philly feline<\/p>\n

One such cat recently found his way into a forever home with the help of Project MEOW and through neighborhood connections. Cedar Park resident Courtney Berne was recently at local favorite Studio 34 Yoga, chatting with a friend who mentioned that he was fostering a cat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally named Hogan Hoopes by Project MEOW, after being found on Hoopes Street in West Philly\u2019s Mill Creek neighborhood, Hogan was renamed Skittles in his foster home after tearing into a bag of candy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Estimated to be about two years old, Skittles, who was later renamed Max (third time\u2019s a charm) by his now-mom Courtney, was a harder-sell for adoption because he wasn\u2019t a kitten. But, like a true Philadelphian, this underdog was completely unphased by the obstacles in his path.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtney with Max, aka Skittles, aka Hogan Hoopes. (Hanbit Kwon\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what he\u2019s been through\u201d Berne reflected, \u201cbut I do know he\u2019s resilient and he\u2019s smart and he is communicative and he\u2019s super happy to live inside. He never even tries to get out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even when he had tapeworms and parasites, he was still this animated. So part of me is like, this is a cat who is grateful. Animals are just so much more resilient and so much smarter than we give them credit for. And he\u2019s like a little angel. He\u2019s just the sweetest boy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. The Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":800395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,4653,326117,137346,1322,326118,23306,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,45998],"class_list":["post-800394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-cats","tag-cedar-park","tag-city-guide","tag-featured","tag-felines","tag-neighborhoods","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-west-philly"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116583885381506654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}