Heather Long had a place in everyone's heart, but animals and kids loved her best

By Abby Kirkland / For the Post-Gazette

Humans and animals alike lost a great friend last week when Heather Long, 42, passed away after a two-year, hard-fought battle with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

I met Heather when we both volunteered at the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society on the North Side. I knew her as the young woman who adopted or fostered hard-to-place pit bulls and showed them what it is like to be loved and valued as part of a family of people and pets. I soon learned that she was so much more.

She met her life partner, Dr. Peter Finelli of Schenley Farms, when they were 20.

“One of the things that attracted me so much to Heather and carries to this day is her compassion for animals and unconditional nature to protect and care for the most vulnerable,” he said.

“Every animal she found became hers. I loved that about her because it was so rare, so pure.”

Mary Kennedy Withrow met Heather in 2011 while working at the Animal Rescue League in Homewood.

“Heather was always willing to help with medical fosters and senior dogs. Nobody could acclimate an animal to other animals like Heather,” said Withrow, who soon became her close friend and “surrogate mother.”

While she had a soft spot for hospice dogs and senior pets, she welcomed any animal and person she met along the way. Anything she did in life, she threw herself into wholeheartedly, persevering even when she appeared out of options.

Her childhood friend, Artilio Campisano of Stanton Heights, cherished her sharp sense of humor and said he can “still hear her infectious laughter. She often said I was her Will and she was my Grace.”

Heather was born and raised in Murrysville and discovered her strong connection with animals early on. When she was in preschool, a stray duck and her duckling nested outside of her classroom. Every day after dinner, she and her family went to feed them. When Heather sang “Six Little Ducks,” the birds would come to her.

One day, she discovered the baby duck had been attacked. Heather’s father caught the duck, took it to a veterinarian and kept it for several months until it could be released back into the wild. She grew up with a menagerie of cats, dogs, turtles, rabbits, hamsters, rats and a random toad that she would catch each summer and bring inside for “vacation.”

Heather met Pete while both attended the University of Pittsburgh in the mid-2000s and found he shared her love of animals. One of their first dogs, Bobo, changed her opinion about pit bulls and was the impetus for her opening her heart to the breed. Bobo shaped and inspired her work with animals of all species, she said.

Nanny NeNe

Her next rescues were also pit bulls — Candy Finelli who was deaf, Diamond Long and NeNe Long. (Yes, they had last names.) Each had their own Facebook page and it wasn’t uncommon to find them in a sweater or T-shirt lounging on the couch, a chair and, in the case of Candy, the kitchen counter.

Heather wrote on her Facebook page that NeNe was “the centering presence and the glue that keeps everyone together with her silent and calm but strong-as-steel leadership.”

Heather met NeNe while visiting a Maui animal shelter on a trip to Hawaii in 2010. The dog had been abused, leaving her broken and fearful. Her trauma, both physical and emotional, was palpable. Heather and Pete decided to adopt NeNe and bring her home with them. The dog refused to eat or pee for four days, but with Heather’s patience and guidance, NeNe’s spirit began to emerge.

Soon, she joined Heather in welcoming every animal or human into their home and helped each one assimilate peacefully into the pack. There was a magic about the way they worked together to help animals feel comfortable and loved.

In 2016, Heather took NeNe on a pilgrimage back to Maui. Her demons conquered, NeNe was now a quietly confident girl who enjoyed resting on the sand and looking at the ocean.

Four years later, when daughter Delilah was born, the dog became “Nanny NeNe” and was almost always by Delilah’s side, ever the protector. NeNe’s gentle presence brought stability and a quiet calmness to their home until her death on Christmas Day 2020.

Heather and Pete inherited Niqua, a feisty Jack Russell terrier, from Pete’s grandfather, and they took in senior foster and hospice dogs.

Frankencat and Doc

In November 2013, a young black cat was found on the street with an atrophied eye, a badly healed broken jaw that held his mouth open and an infected wound between his eyes. Michelle Miller Balistrieri of Homeless Cat Management Team took him into care, cleaned him up and discovered he had tested positive for feline leukemia. He needed a cat-free place to live for six weeks until his retest.

A client of Heather’s pet care business, AuPurr, suggested that they ask Heather as she didn’t have any cats in her home.

Balestrieri contacted her and Heather’s response was, “Sure, why not?”

She had recently fostered Old Grand Dad, a 15-year-old unneutered, deaf, blind and senile pit bull slated for euthanasia. Heather thought that the cat and dog might provide comfort for one another. She named him Frankencat and placed him in a crate in Old Grand Dad’s room. Soon they were fast friends.

Frankencat became the dog’s one-eyed guide, leading him around the room, comforting him during petit mal seizures and often grooming him and sleeping with him. Frankencat was by his side when he died.

Lonesome without his friend, Franken befriended the other animals in the home and lived with Heather and Pete until his death in 2015. Heather went on to adopt two other cats — Black, who died unexpectedly, and Fievel, who was unable to use his rear legs as a kitten. With Heather’s attention and care, he now walks normally. 

A potbellied pig joined the household in 2015. Of course he has a Facebook page as well, Doc the Pig.

Heather, who had always wanted a pig, learned that there was a 3-month-old pig at a local shelter whose family no longer wanted him. After getting advice from shelter staff, books and websites, she agreed to foster him. And soon after, she adopted him.

Pigs are extremely smart, and Doc required a lot of attention, stimulation and training to keep him from getting into trouble. Heather wanted him to be well socialized, so that meant lots of training with her dogs and cats as well as humans of all ages.

At 5 months old, Doc made an appearance at the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, where he greeted fans and showed off some of his tricks. Since pigs cannot wear collars, Heather kept him in a harness and put him in a stroller to transport him back and forth between her car and the convention center.

Somehow, as they were leaving, Doc was able to create a hole in the stroller and slipped out and ran. It was something to see Heather, me and my husband trying to catch a pig in a Downtown parking garage! 

Fortunately, Doc was caught and returned safely to his home. He got out of his yard one other time — the police dispatcher couldn’t believe it — and it wasn’t uncommon to see Doc walking on the streets of his neighborhood or the nearby Pitt campus. 

Catching BuckingHam

In July 2018, Heather’s knowledge of pigs came in handy as she helped capture a runaway piglet spotted in the parking lot of WTAE-TV and running down Ardmore Boulevard and onto the Parkway East. With the Fourth of July approaching, they wanted to catch him before the fireworks.

Always full of ideas and unconventional approaches, Heather tried to lure the pig with roasted Brussels sprouts, buttered cabbage and other home-cooked food. But the pig wouldn’t eat until she walked away.

She tried playing pig sounds from YouTube videos, which seemed to soothe the little beast until her phone died and he took off.

Desperate to catch him, she set a humane trap with a trail of food leading to it and a comfy bed inside. When she returned the next morning, he was in the crate.

Heather then took the piglet into her home and fostered him until he found a forever home. She named him BuckingHam and put him in a sequined vest with a bow tie to greet visitors. 

It wasn’t only animals; Heather could connect with people, too. She was a force that brought people together, a catalyst. Many of them have since become friends with each other.

Sonya Kapcin met Heather in 2015 at an animal event, but they really bonded when Kapcin posted on Facebook looking for a workout buddy. During workouts at a Bakery Square fitness center, they shared various parts of their lives — some good, some not so good, as Kapcin was going through a difficult time.

“Heather saw the value in me before I saw it in myself. Like a wounded animal, she molded me. She helped me believe that I am a good friend. She had such a big heart.”

Delilah and Kai

Of course, Heather’s proudest achievements were her daughter, Delilah, 4, and son, Kai, 2. It’s easy to see that they have inherited their parents’ love of animals. When she was a baby, Delilah often wore a onesie that said, “I will save the animals.”

After NeNe passed away in 2020, Heather was heartbroken. In early 2021, she contacted the shelter in Maui to let them know of NeNe’s passing. Soon after, she saw a dog on their website, Kahi, who reminded her of NeNe. When Heather contacted the shelter about adopting Kahi, she earned that another dog, Ulu, relied heavily on Kahi  for support.

That was no problem for Heather; she decided to adopt them both. After making arrangements with the airlines to transport the dogs from Hawaii to Pittsburgh, she and Delilah, a toddler at the time, flew there to meet and accompany the dogs to Pittsburgh in the middle of January.

Kahi passed away in August, but Ulu now has confidence and is coping well without his partner.

Kai’s birth in April 2022 was a time of joy; Heather had always wanted Delilah to have a sibling. Having lost a brother herself at a young age, she felt that it would be so important for them to grow up together.

However, one week after he was born, that joy was dampened when Heather was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I remember her saying, “The hardest thing about this is that I can’t nurse Kai.”

She began pumping and freezing her breast milk and, thanks to a group of local moms, soon had an entire freezer full so that she could feed Kai during her cancer treatment.

Heather was determined to keep everything as normal for the kids as possible as she fought to beat the disease. She never doubted that  she would prevail; she had always found a way. She continued to throw parties, making everything from homemade cakes to hors d'oeuvres.

In the spring of 2023, when Candy turned 14, Heather threw a party and made dog treats. In November, after Candy died, the family discovered the dog’s Christmas stocking. Delilah said, “I’m sad that Candy won’t get a stocking this year.”

She asked Heather if they could make stockings and treats for the animals at Humane Animal Rescue Pittsburgh so that they could have a nice Christmas. One day, between chemo treatments, that is what they did. They scheduled a time to deliver them to the shelter and Heather and Delilah got to meet some of the animals.

It was no surprise when Heather told me that she was getting Delilah a white rat for Christmas 2023. Potato, named after the cartoon, joined the family (in an area safe from the other animals). Not long after, because rats like to have friends, they adopted Peaches. The two happily snuggle together in their pen when Delilah isn’t playing with them.

Precious time

After a series of grueling cancer treatments in 2024, Heather’s cancer remained. In September 2024, she, Pete and the kids were treated to a special family vacation courtesy of One Day to Remember, a Pittsburgh charity that grants wishes for advanced stage cancer patients and their children.

Delilah loves princesses and castles so Heather found a castle in the Poconos complete with costumes and everything needed for a magical “royal” weekend. “This is the best vacation ever!” Delilah said.

Unfortunately, Heather’s health continued to decline. She ended up in the hospital for a weeklong stay. The doctors told her there was nothing more they could do for her.

“It was heartbreaking to watch. She felt it down to the depths of her soul,” Withrow said.

She returned home to be with her family and her “nurse,” Ulu. In true Heather style, she decided she wanted to have a “going away party” for herself in a city park.

During one of our visits, she asked me, “Do you think that’s weird?”

“Not at all,” I said. “That’s so you,”

She also mentioned two other planned events — Halloween trick-or-treating and a “Barbie”-themed party for Delilah’s fifth birthday at the end of October.

Sadly, it soon became clear that Heather would not be well enough for her party. Less than a week later, she died with Finelli, Withrow and Campisano by her side, reassuring her that the Barbie party and trick-or-treating will go on.

Word spread quickly and friends began posting on Heather’s Facebook page as well as the pages of her beloved pets.

One friend shared a Facebook post from Heather that she had posted after Franken’s death:

“As I struggle so hard to make sense of Franken’s death, I keep coming back to the same notion … a spirit and energy as strong as his doesn’t just vanish. It can’t.”

So true, my friend. Thank you for being you. We feel you every day.

Abby Kirkland ([email protected]) is a freelance writer and animal lover who lives in Mt. Lebanon.