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                                                                    Recent Posts

Wednesday 12 08 09

  Hi All,
We had 25 cats show up at the clinic yesterday in these frigid temperatures.  23 were brought from Sterling, CO (nice, rural area - 2 hours north east of Denver!).  2 of the Sterling kittens were found in a dumpster a couple of days ago and despite our efforts to save one of them, he continued to decline and needed to be euthanized last night - broke my heart.  His brother, though lonely, seems to be doing okay.
I had a call from the Elbert County Sheriff 's Dept. today, asking if we could help with a situation.  A woman had been feeding a few ferals for  some time now (she, apparently, inherited them with her house) and was bitten by one the other day when he grabbed some food from her hand (poor thing was probably starving in this crazy cold weather.)  She now wants them  "gone"  and the deputy was kind enough to find a humane solution.  When I asked if they were feral, he said they are just all sitting outside her back door - trying to get in.  I told him to trap and bring them to me so I could evaluate for temperament and see if we can get them into a foster/shelter setting.  They can stay with me until the weather warms up this weekend then go from there - oy.  Just never ends...
Erica

October 31, 2009

July 28, 2009

Hi All,
We spayed/neutered 32 cats in Westminster today.  It was a beautiful, cool day so it didn't matter much that our air conditioner was lapsing.
This was our last clinic until the month of September.  We are taking time off next month to apply ourselves to raising desperately-needed funds in order to continue our important work.
Please continue to check out our website for important updates re: our upcoming fundraiser, " Paella For Paws ."
We'll be in touch so stay tuned...

Erica

July 14, 2009

Hi All,

July 7, 2009

Hi All,

June 30, 2009

Hi All,

June 15, 2009

  Hi All,
We spayed/neutered 18 cats at our North Denver location today.  Lot's of kittens in the outer wall of the house that Gail will continue to try and catch.
Must run now, and return the two nursing moms to their hungry kittens.
Stay tuned...
Erica

June 9, 2009

Hi All,

June 7, 2009

  Hi All,

June 2, 2009

  Hi All,
We spayed and neutered 34 cats at our clinic in the City Park Neighborhood today - 21 of whom were female.  Not too bad for a cold and rainy Spring day .
We had visitors from a group called Friends of Ferals in Fort Collins.  They are a new group and were there to pick our brains in order to better help the cats in northern Colorado.  We wish them great success!
I've promised you photos for a long time and still can't seem to find time in our busy day to do that.  I'll keep working on it.
Stay tuned-
Erica

May 26, 2009

Hi All,
We spayed/neutered 31 cats at our clinic in Aurora today.  Only a handful were boys so very gratifying day!  I just released 8 nursing moms back to their colonies so they could get back to their kittens.  I continue to have many litters of kittens staying with me (we picked up 3 more litters today!) so if you know of anyone willing to foster or adopt (once they are big enough to be fixed , of course) please send them my way.  The shelters continue to be inundated with cats/kittens so we have few options but are unwilling to leave them on the streets...
Stay tuned-
Erica

May 12, 2009

Hi All,
We saw 36 cats at our clinic in Byers today (Byers is way out on the eastern plains.)  This clinic was set up by an Eagle Scout named Tyler and he really got the word out!  With the help of his family and an ad he posted in the local paper, they were able to trap 23 cats and did a wonderful job of transporting these cats to the clinic today (they actually live out in Limon which is even further east of Byers.)  We had many free-roaming cats at today's clinic and the plan is to try and find homes for them all.  We already found a foster for one mom and her 4 adorable babies and are still looking for a spot for another mom and 1 baby, as well as 6 others.  We'll be making calls to all the shelters tomorrow to see if anyone can help us out, but for now, they are all safe, warm and well fed!
Thanks for your support and stay tuned...
Erica

5 06 09

Hi All,
We spayed/neutered 32 cats yesterday in north Denver.  Of course this time of year, many were nursing moms with litters of kittens out in the world - never ending cycle.
We also saw an adult, tame cat yesterday who was brought to us by a woman who had been feeding him for a couple of months.  When we saw that he was tame and neutered, we scanned him for a microchip.  Much to our delight, he had one!!  The cat, "Simon" will be reunited with his very excited family tonight.  She said he had been missing for a couple of months and while they hadn't given up hope, they weren't too optimistic that they would ever see their beautiful red tabby  again.  I look forward to the reunion tonight with a very small amount of sadness as the woman who brought him in said that she and her cat just adore him!  Well, at least he's going back to his  loving, rightful home.
Stay tuned...
Erica

4 21 09 Hi All,

Stay tuned-

4 16 09

Hi All,

We saw 37 cats at our clinic Tuesday in North Denver.  It was a sad situation where all the cats needed to be relocated due to a complaining neighbor.  We try to use relocation of feral cats as a very last resort as these cats are very bonded to their homes.  They say that even if you do everything right (ie - confine them to their new location for a minimum of 12 weeks, keep their scent on everything, place them with other cats from their colony, etc.) that 50% of them will still try to go home.  Needless to say, most won't make it.  The caretaker was very upset by all of this but was able to find good barn homes for all of them.  We'll  cross our fingers for the little angels.. Thanks for your support

Erica

April 4, 2009

Hi All,

March 24, 2009 Hi All-

March 4, 2009

Hi All,

We spayed/neutered 24 cats yesterday at a mobile home park in North Denver.  We had visited this park in the past and there continues to be no shortage of cats that need our help there.  We had, much to our dismay, our first lactating mom of the year yesterday.  Can't believe they are already giving birth this early in the season.  Good thing we have a Saturday clinic this week and already have more than 40 reservations.  Such a critical time of year to hold clinics.

Stay tuned and thanks for your support-

Erica

February 12, 2009

Hi All,
We spayed/neutered 17 cats on Tuesday , the majority of which were boys!  That is very unusual as we typically see many more females in a colony than males.  We ended up keeping a cat with a tail abscess and a female that did not want to cooperate when it came to breathing well under anesthesia.  Both are doing well and may be going back to their respective colonies sooner than later as the weather is expected to start getting cold  tomorrow night.  Stay tuned and thanks for your support-

Erica

January 28, 2009

Hi All,
Well, we were thinking of canceling today's clinic due to the snow and cold temperatures of yesterday, but so glad we didn't!  The "Beast " did fine on the snowy roads (love that Colorado sunshine!) and there were many cats awaiting our services when we arrived at our location in Aurora.  We spayed/neutered 29 cats today, the majority of which were female.  We actually had 2 pregnant cats  - imagine them giving birth in a March snowstorm...
The cats from today's clinic will have a nice warm place to rest tonight after their big day of surgery.  It is very cold out so I know they are content and well fed.
Stay tuned and thanks for your continued support-
Erica

January 13, 2009

Hi All,
We spayed and neutered (mainly spayed!) 23 cats in Northglenn today, 
19 of which came from the colony where we were parked.  The caretaker 
thinks she has about 10 more that we were unable to trap - oy.
Our volunteer vet, Laura, is originally from France and is teaching us 
to speak french on each of her visits.  Along with her wonderful help 
with the cats, she is also proving to be a great teacher!
Stay tuned...
Erica

January 6, 2009

Hi All,

We spayed/neutered 32 cats today, 25 of which were trapped at the 
Commerce City location where we were parked.  It was a good day for 
those cats as we hopefully caught most of them and a trapper-friend 
will be continuing to monitor the situation.
Tomorrow should be a nice day for releasing everyone so they will be 
going home late in the morning.
Stay tuned...
Erica

December 23, 2008

Hi All,

We spayed and neutered 14 cats today.  Relatively slow day for us but 
14 less cats that will be reproducing or responsible for helping in 
the reproduction process!  I was hoping for more, of course, so that 
in addition to the reproduction issue, they would have had a nice warm 
place to sleep and eat tonight.  Sadly enough, we had a pregnant cat 
today as well as one in-heat - unbelievable for the end of December.
Happy Holidays to all of you and thanks for your continued support. 
We couldn't do our good work without all of you.
Stay tuned...

Erica

December 15, 2008

Hi All,

December 12, 2008

Hi All,

December 2, 2008

Hi All,

November 18, 2008

Hi All,

November 15, 2008

Hi All,

January 2008

Feral Feline Plight Inspires Vet’s Compassionate Care

                                                                                                by Susan Dugan

                                                                                      (reprinted courtesy of Washington Park Profile)

  I would love to put myself out of business,” says Dr. Erica Rambus . “I would love it if there were no more feral cats and every stray found a good family.”

     The local champion for feral cats had never even heard of such a beast when she first treated one at Denver’s Harrison Memorial Animal Hospital .

          “Nobody talked about them in vet school, probably because there’s no money in them,” she says. “The first time I saw this cat coming in – in a trap – my heart just went out to them. They were living all over the place, trying to fend for themselves. Some were diseased, some hungry, some had abscesses, and on and on. Even the ones that lived in good environments and had caretakers were at risk. It’s not as if the caretakers could treat them if they had something wrong with them.”

(reprinted courtesy of Washington Park Profile)

     The plight of more than 150,000 such cats in Denver prompted Rambus and fellow vet Dr. Susan na Russo to launch Divine Feline – a mobile cat clinic dedicated to neutering and vaccinating healthy feral cats – in 2003. The nonprofit works closely with Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance, an organization promoting humane treatment for feral cats.

     “We renovated an old 1984 RV and it became our mobile surgery unit,” Rambus says. “We take our beast out weekly to cat colonies and do surgery on site.” Rambus takes cats (sometimes as many as 40) back to her home for an overnight stay and returns them to colonies the next day.

     Divine Feline follows up on colonies of feral cats people report in on. “Someone will say, ‘I’m feeding 20 cats in my alley,’ or, ‘My neighbor has 30 cats in their yard,’” she says.

     But many more colonies go undetected. “People say they don’t have cats in their neighborhood,” she says. “Well, they’re feral. They’re scared to death of humans. They come out at night and pick through dumpsters. I think people don’t see them, they’re not looking for them, or they assume they belong to somebody.”

     Born in Detroit , Rambus applied to vet school at Colorado State University after earning a degree in retail management and working at Lord & Taylor in Chicago. “I was totally dissatisfied with my life,” she says. “I had always been interested in working with animals, but I think I just wasn’t ready to take on something that serious right away.”

     After graduating from CSU in 1996, she took a job at Harrison. “I wanted to work with underprivileged, and at that time it worked only with indigent clients. We spayed/neutered every animal that came in, and provided every kind of veterinary medicine at very low cost.”

     Rambus’ love for needy animals is not limited to felines. Three elderly dogs she has rescued – two Chihuahuas and a medium-sized mixed breed – wander about her spacious backyard as she speaks. She has carried an 18-year-old blind cat she cares for onto the lawn for fresh air, and another of her cats has curled up in the garage along with two caged ferals and a six-week-old kitten. A paraplegic cat she adopted lounges at her feet as she explains that Divine Feline and Alley Cat both work to educate people about the need to provide food, water, and shelter for feral cats.

     “These cats can’t fend for themselves,” Rambus says. “They’re not wild animals; they’re just not socialized. We don’t just come and spay/neuter and say, ‘Okay, you can’t reproduce anymore, have a good life'."

     Divine Feline removes kittens from their colonies, places them in foster care for socialization, and then puts them up for adoption. They cannot socialize cats older than eight weeks.

     “Kittens may be hissing and biting when we get them, but usually within a day or two, they will tame to humans. I’ll send out an email and say, ‘I’ve got babies that need help’ – and have 15 friends show up in a two-week period to spend an hour with them. One of my friends’ teenage daughter brought three of her friends over, and spent a Saturday afternoon in the garage with these kittens.”

Rambus often tries to find adoptive homes for kittens through word of mouth. “If you send them to a shelter, they’re probably going to get respiratory infections,” she says. And she tries to get people to take two at a time whenever possible. “Babies just do so much better when they have a playmate. They’ll play all day long and curl up at night together.”

The organization depends on volunteers to help trap, socialize, provide foster care, and clean surgical instruments. And Rambus strives to get children involved. A friend who works at the Bridge Project, a University of Denver organization for at-risk youth, brings children in to volunteer...  “Those kids just blossom here,” she says. “It’s a natural thing for kids to bond with animals, but a lot of these kids had that taken away from them because they were in such abusive situations. They end up abusing the animals in the house and they know it’s not right; they love animals.”

Although Divine Feline helps control the feral cat population, it does not solve the problem. “Statewide law needs to change to require every shelter to spay/neuter before the animals leave,” Rambus says. “( Denver ) Dumb Friends League does this, but some shelters don’t. I’ve had people bring cats to me from a shelter and then bring them back, because they’re scared they’re going to adopt them out.

And if every vet did a little pro bono work, it also would make a huge difference, because not everyone can afford to have their pets spayed/neutered,” she adds.

  “The Dumb Friends League now has a mobile clinic providing low-cost spay/neutering for cats and dogs. Those kinds of things really help.”     

Besides operating Divine Feline, Rambus performs spaying and neutering at the Dumb Friends League, runs a house-call practice, and provides relief work at the Animal Rescue and Adoption Society’s cat shelter. She loves gardening, yoga, cooking, and runs half marathons with her sister. “We meet in cool places a couple times a year, but it’s hard to get away,” she says.

     “My family gets frustrated with me, but I’m really reluctant to leave. My friends ask if I miss the medicine – but this is just so needed. I think it’s the best thing I've ever done.

            “And I never thought I’d reach a point in my life where I’d prefer curling up with a good book and my animals to just about anything,” she adds. “But, I have.”