{"id":313871,"date":"2026-10-25T09:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T09:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313871\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T09:26:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T09:26:24","slug":"philadelphia-cat-rescue-hero-art-professor-al-gury-to-be-memorialized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313871\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia cat rescue hero, art professor Al Gury to be memorialized"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PAWS shelter in Gray\u2019s Ferry has a maternity room where pregnant cats can safely give birth. The room is named after Gury.\n<\/p>\n

Gury specialized in caring for rescued cats that had medical problems and were difficult to place in foster care. His third-story walk-up loft apartment on Chestnut Street in Old City served as a home, studio and playground for recovering cats.\n<\/p>\n

In 2016, he took in a cat that was born without eyelids<\/a>. An operation to graft new lids cost $3,000, which Gury paid himself. The cat was later adopted out.\n<\/p>\n

Levy said Gury was particularly drawn to cats with eye problems because he was a visual artist.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was something in him that was really moved and motivated to ensure that these tiny creatures could see the world.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

In 2018, Gury\u2019s apartment building burned down. The owners of a bar on the ground floor were later convicted of intentionally setting the building on fire<\/a> to collect an insurance payout. The fire consumed all of Gury\u2019s stored artwork and six cats.\n<\/p>\n

As soon as Gury reestablished a residence, he resumed fostering cats.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not always sweetness and light as everyone would like it to be,\u201d Gury said in 2018. \u201cIt\u2019s sometimes hard and painful, but I\u2019m committed to this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Although cats only seldom appeared on Gury\u2019s canvases, his commitment to art and cats were intertwined.\u00a0 Amanda Kaiserman, a PAFA board member who once took classes with Gury, said taking care of cats was a healing activity for him.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt like, you can\u2019t always count on people, but you can always count on cats,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was very conscious of the healing properties of art, and I think he used his art both to help heal other people and for himself. There\u2019s a lot of overlap with his care for cats.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

A gathering memorializing Gury<\/a> will be held at PAFA\u2019s Rhoden Arts Center auditorium on Oct. 23 at 5 p.m., followed by a reception in a nearby gallery with the exhibition \u201cAl Gury: Painting and Purpose.\u201d<\/a>
\n\"AlAl Gury rarely put cats into his canvases. This painting, \u201dQuiet,\u201d is an exception. (From Al Gury online portfolio)\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PAWS shelter in Gray\u2019s Ferry has a maternity room where pregnant cats can safely give birth. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31945,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-313871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-pafa","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}