South Fayette resident manages Pittsburgh cat show
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
Alice Schepp and her cat Coopurr.
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
Alice Schepp’s cat, Coopurr, a Maine Coon breed.
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
One of the judges inspecting a cat during the show.
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
One of the award-winning cats at Steel City Kitties.
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
An owner playing with her cats.
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
One of the cats being prepared for the show.
Before Alice Schepp married her husband, she gave him one condition.
“We are going to have a cat,” she said.
Well, maybe more than just one cat.
Schepp, who now lives in South Fayette, has eight cats and is the president of a nonprofit organization that manages cat shows sponsored by the Cat Fanciers’ Association. Her organization, Steel City Kitties, hosted a cat show Feb. 10-11 at the Monroeville Convention Center, where people from all over the country came for the show that had 218 cats.
By Jacob Calvin Meyer
Staff writer
jmeyer@thealmanac.net
Alice Schepp, show manager, discusses Steel City Kitties.
“We had people from all over the country who are trying to get these national titles for their cats,” Schepp said. “After all the hard work that the very few of us put together, I’m more than pleased.”
Growing up in Mt. Lebanon, Schepp’s house was always filled with rescued cats. As she got older, she started to rescue cats of her own, and one of them looked a lot like a Maine coon breed – a larger, more sociable breed of cat.
When that cat died, she decided to get a real Maine coon, but the cat had a heart complication called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – a relatively common heart defect in cats where the heart is enlarged and can lead to sudden death.
“When I took him to the vet, I knew something was wrong. But he’s still alive today, and he’s 10 years old,” Schepp said. “When I found out he was sick, I decided to get another one.”
Schepp reached out to Marilyn McBane, who then approached Schepp about participating in cat shows.
By Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
By Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
McBane and Hope Gonano were members of another cat group in Western Pennsylvania and decided to break off and start their own. After Schepp joined, the three of women and their husbands each put in their own money to host their first CFA cat show in 2012.
“I think mostly we’ve grown because we’ve gotten a good reputation by CFA of putting on a good show,” Schepp said. “In CFA membership, those people want to come to our shows. Pittsburgh has also supported us a lot with cat lovers.”
Schepp, whose eight cats are all Maine coons, now has a cat named “Coopurr,” who Schepp hopes can be a regional champion.
“(Maine coons) are like no other cat I’ve ever been around,” Schepp said. “They are kind of dog like…kind of like a golden retriever. They want to be where you are. They’re gentle. They have a very sweet disposition and are nurturing. They’re warm and cuddly.”
Schepp also said she’s enjoyed her time at Steel City Kitties as she’s gotten older.
“I’m getting to the age where I’m starting to think about retirement, and I don’t want to sit around and do nothing, so to be able to do something that you really love, it seems like a no-brainer to get involved,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to meet all kinds of different people who share the same type of love for cats as you do.”