Dr. Amy with free spirit Crackle ♡
Hello, I'm Dr. Amy MacKay!
I was born and raised in the Cleveland area, the lucky daughter of Nancy and Charles. Fortunately my parents are awesome and so while we were growing up, my sister (aka my best friend Susie) and I had a dog named Henry, followed shortly thereafter by a rescue cat named Sooty. We had a procession of "S" felines after that—Sammy, Sarah, Scooter, Simon, Sylvie. I loved them all passionately, and I guess it was just instinctive for me to become a veterinarian.
After receiving my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from The Ohio State University in 1996, I was privileged to be awarded a residency in feline internal medicine at the University of Bristol in England. Under the mentorship of some amazing experts, I endeavored to learn as much as I could about cats.
Upon returning home, I was fortunate to start working at a local cat practice, gaining valuable clinical experience. But I wanted to do things my way... in particular, I wanted to be able to put the cats first, as I thought (and still think) that that is how it should be. After a few years, I was able to follow my dream and open my own practice—Nine Lives Cat Clinic. With the help of my amazing staff, we provided "quality medicine, compassionate care" for nearly 14 years. We had fantastic clients and fabulous patients... our own little, loyal, loving family. However, health issues (particularly a neuropathy which affects my arms) and other factors necessitated the closure of my clinic in 2017.
With the love and support of many (special shout-out to my partner Eric and my friends Lee, Katie, Terri, and Laurel), by 2019 we had transitioned into Nine Lives Cat Center, providing wellness care and grooming along with boarding in our popular "Hotel Homer." In addition, we launched our Apricity program, through which we welcomed displaced and deserving senior cats into our sanctuary. We tried to help as many cats and as many people as possible... as always.
In the summer of 2023, a novel gastrointestinal virus spread through our facility without warning. The majority of our residents and boarders were affected, some quite severely. Thankfully, response to treatment was good, and further spread was able to be contained. However, I felt it was imperative to make some broad changes to enhance the safety of our center. I decided to renovate the facility, creating full separation between our boarding area and our sanctuary. With the help of my amazing contractor (thank you, Laurits!), renovations were completed by the end of the year. Our residents and boarding guests have had no further issues to date. We intend to keep all safeguards in place and to monitor vigilantly, as nothing is more important to us than the health and welfare of cats.
As a result of our renovation, we were unfortunately unable to continue our wellness and grooming service. Perhaps in the future we will be able to reinstate this in some way, but for now, it is not possible. I miss seeing our clients and patients, both from the wellness/grooming service and from "back in the day" at our full-service clinic... but thankfully many have chosen to keep in touch. I hope it will stay that way!
We hold two in-person gatherings every year: our multi-social event—raffle, food drive, and open house—in the spring/summer and our calendar sale at the holidays. (My favorite thing ever is to design a calendar every year which features all of our residents. This tradition started way back in 2009!) Everyone is welcome to attend and to visit with our wonderful cats! If you'd like to join our mailing list to receive information on these or other happenings here at our center, please let us know.
Wishing all of you, and your cats, health and happiness.
Amy 💗
I was born and raised in the Cleveland area, the lucky daughter of Nancy and Charles. Fortunately my parents are awesome and so while we were growing up, my sister (aka my best friend Susie) and I had a dog named Henry, followed shortly thereafter by a rescue cat named Sooty. We had a procession of "S" felines after that—Sammy, Sarah, Scooter, Simon, Sylvie. I loved them all passionately, and I guess it was just instinctive for me to become a veterinarian.
After receiving my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from The Ohio State University in 1996, I was privileged to be awarded a residency in feline internal medicine at the University of Bristol in England. Under the mentorship of some amazing experts, I endeavored to learn as much as I could about cats.
Upon returning home, I was fortunate to start working at a local cat practice, gaining valuable clinical experience. But I wanted to do things my way... in particular, I wanted to be able to put the cats first, as I thought (and still think) that that is how it should be. After a few years, I was able to follow my dream and open my own practice—Nine Lives Cat Clinic. With the help of my amazing staff, we provided "quality medicine, compassionate care" for nearly 14 years. We had fantastic clients and fabulous patients... our own little, loyal, loving family. However, health issues (particularly a neuropathy which affects my arms) and other factors necessitated the closure of my clinic in 2017.
With the love and support of many (special shout-out to my partner Eric and my friends Lee, Katie, Terri, and Laurel), by 2019 we had transitioned into Nine Lives Cat Center, providing wellness care and grooming along with boarding in our popular "Hotel Homer." In addition, we launched our Apricity program, through which we welcomed displaced and deserving senior cats into our sanctuary. We tried to help as many cats and as many people as possible... as always.
In the summer of 2023, a novel gastrointestinal virus spread through our facility without warning. The majority of our residents and boarders were affected, some quite severely. Thankfully, response to treatment was good, and further spread was able to be contained. However, I felt it was imperative to make some broad changes to enhance the safety of our center. I decided to renovate the facility, creating full separation between our boarding area and our sanctuary. With the help of my amazing contractor (thank you, Laurits!), renovations were completed by the end of the year. Our residents and boarding guests have had no further issues to date. We intend to keep all safeguards in place and to monitor vigilantly, as nothing is more important to us than the health and welfare of cats.
As a result of our renovation, we were unfortunately unable to continue our wellness and grooming service. Perhaps in the future we will be able to reinstate this in some way, but for now, it is not possible. I miss seeing our clients and patients, both from the wellness/grooming service and from "back in the day" at our full-service clinic... but thankfully many have chosen to keep in touch. I hope it will stay that way!
We hold two in-person gatherings every year: our multi-social event—raffle, food drive, and open house—in the spring/summer and our calendar sale at the holidays. (My favorite thing ever is to design a calendar every year which features all of our residents. This tradition started way back in 2009!) Everyone is welcome to attend and to visit with our wonderful cats! If you'd like to join our mailing list to receive information on these or other happenings here at our center, please let us know.
Wishing all of you, and your cats, health and happiness.
Amy 💗