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Remember Divine Feline when planning your estate.  Continue your legacy by reducing needless suffering through the practice of spay/neuter.

Dr. Erica Rambus
3067 S. Dexter Way
Denver, CO 80222

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         "Divine Feline"

May 30

Hi All-
We had a relatively tame day in Kersey, CO where we had 17 cats brought to us.  We were a bit concerned about the weather conditions as we watched the skies darkening, knowing that tornadoes had touched down in the area recently.  Decidedly, being in a mobile clinic in the middle of a mobile home park is not the place to be during a tornado.  We finished our work an headed home, missing all predicted storms. 
We did end up bringing a baby tortie home with us who was too sick to spay.  Before the end of the clinic we had her eating, purring, meowing, and acting like life wasn't so bad after all.  Once her ringworm has cleared up we will get her spayed and find a good home for her.
Stay tuned..
Erica

May 27

Hi All-
Well, we spayed/neutered another 32 cats yesterday, making our total for 2 days a whopping 87 cats!!  Let's hope we're putting a dent in the feline population in Denver - how could we not be?
One thing I know to be true, however, is that we made a difference in the lives of those 87 cats that we helped this week.
Thanks for your support and stay tuned..
Erica

May 26

May 20

May 12

Stay tuned..
Erica

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. Susanna 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.”

 

 

Recent Posts

 

April 22, 2008

Hi All-
Well, kitten season has arrived and before long, every shelter in the Denver Metro area will be inundated with the little rug rats.  Our volunteers, technician, and veterinarian are currently fostering and bottle-feeding a number of kittens that have come from our clinics.  Ideally, we like to keep the young, nursing kittens with mom until at least 5 weeks of age but that is not always possible.  Bottom line, we try to remove the kittens from the colony and socialize them so that they can be adopted and have better lives than their parents.
We spayed and neutered 25 cats today, 4 of whom were lactating and will be released back to their respective colonies tonight so they can nurse their babies, and 4 of whom were pregnant.  We also had a couple of sick boys who tested positive for FIV and were all beaten up.  It is nice to be able to help these unfortunate cats by providing them with a kind, gentle, and humane ending.  The rest of the cats will recover with me tonight and be returned home on a beautiful 80 degree day tomorrow. 
Stay tuned and, if you have a few extra bucks burning a hole in your pockets, we would be grateful for supplies such as canned cat food, paper towels, alcohol, peroxide, and, of course cold, hard cash for our medical supplies!
Thanks-
Erica

April 11, 2008.

Our Saturday clinic was busy with 29 cats, one of whom had bilateral abdominal hernias.  She was taken to Downtown Animal Care Center on Monday where her hernias (old bite wound?) were repaired and she was spayed.  She continues to recover in my nice toasty garage and is doing great!

Tuesday's clinic was slow (22 cats) so Dr. Dave and I helped out with the Meow Mobile which was without a veterinarian that day.  We ended up spaying and neutering 58 cats total that day- wow!  The cats continue to recover with me as our little snow storm does not appear to be subsiding until Saturday.

We will be starting every-other Monday clinics with RMACA in May so between Divine Feline, RMACA clinics, DACCC, Meow Mobile, and LuLu Mobile I believe we are making a huge dent in Denver's pet overpopulation.  What do you think?
Stay tuned-
Erica

November 20, 2007

Hi All-


Well, our little cold spell came just in time (the day after our clinic) to insure that I would have a garage full of cats staying nice and toasty for the holiday!  We spayed/neutered 28 cats on Tuesday, 20 were female, 8 male, 1 lactating, 9 ear-tipped and previously altered (we still anesthetized to check teeth , felv/fiv test where needed, etc.), 3 tame and rest feral.  One was euthanized due to illness.
So, along with the 17 cats I brought home from the clinic and 2 others recovering in the garage (one previously altered and one on a rabies-hold), I had a call from a woman in Watkins today saying she had a mom and 7 babies that she desperately needed to take somewhere today so they wouldn't freeze to death (the temperature is expected to drop to 9 degrees tonight).  She brought them to me, along with their calico "aunt" and proud papa!  That makes a total of 29 cats in my garage - aye Chihuahua!!  They will be staying for a while as it looks like it will not get out of the 30's until Saturday.


Happy Thanksgiving to all!!  I'm thankful for my heated garage and I hope all of you have wonderful things to be thankful for this thanksgiving, as well.


Erica  

More posts from this month are below

November 6, 2007


Hi All-
We saw 28 cats at our clinic today.  9 were boys, 19 girls, 3 were lactating
moms, 1/18 tested positive for FIV, 2/18 tested positive for FeLV, and 1
tested positive for both.  4 cats were euthanized.  23 were feral, 5 tame. 
I will keep one cat with very inflammed intestines for observation this
week.  She has bad diarrhea and we want to make sure she is ok to be
released back to her colony.


The weather for releasing cats tomorrow will be a balmy 70 degrees - thank
god for global warming!!


Erica

 

                    November 3, 2007

Hi All-
We saw 22 cats at our clinic today.  We asked that only feral cats attend as
I would be the only vet working (Dave was in Hackston (?) spaying and
neutering tons of animals!).  Dr. Ann Eliopulos helped us out, however, and
we really appreciate her time - thanks, Ann!


We neutered 8 boys, spayed 6 girls, 2 lactating moms, 2 previously altered,
6 were there to be tested only, 4/8 tested positive for FIV, 0/8 tested
positive for FeLV, and 1 was euthanized. Of the cats we did surgery on - 4
were tame and 10 were feral.  The 3 babies that tested positive for FIV will
be retested every month until 6 months of age before we can definitively say
that they are positive for their disease and not reacting to positive-mom's
antibodies.


No sign of our feral girl yet...


Erica


 

October 30, 2007

Hi All-
We saw 25 cats at our clinic today; 15 males and 10 females.  11 came from
the location where we were parked in Denver while 3 were young kittens (too
young to be fixed) that Gail had just found in her colony.  Mom tested
positive for FIV as did all 3 kittens but kittens may just be testing
positive because they have antibodies to the virus.  Mom had to be
euthanized but Gail will foster and continue to test the babies until they
are 6 months of age, if need be. 2 of the cats were lactating/postpartum, 18
feral, 7 tame, 5/6 (including the kittens) tested positive for FIV and 1/6
tested positive for FeLV.  3 had to be euthanized due to their diseases.
We also spayed/neutered Dave and Becky's 3 foster kittens today and my
little foster baby, Pippin.
Still no sign of our feral mom - we're still hopeful..
Erica

 

October 23, 2007


Hi All-
We saw 36 cats today at the clinic.  21 came from the location where "The
Beast" was parked and the others came from elsewhere.  19 female, 17 male, 1
postpartum/lactating, 0 pregnant (thank god!), 1/13 tested positive for FIV
and was euthanized, 0/13 positive for FeLV.  32 were feral and 4 tame.  We
treated 2 abscesses and they will be spending the week with me for pain mgt
and antibiotics.


Well, two of my seven kittens from the Saturday clinic were successfully
socialized while the other five will be returning to their colony as they just
aren't "coming around" although it kills me to return them this time of year.  But it is
better they not live in fear and, best of all, they have wonderful
caretakers!!


Dave and Becky had a much higher success rate with their kittens as only one
never tamed down.
Still no sign of our feral escapee - we won't give up hope..
Stay tuned-
Erica

 October 13, 2007


Hi All,
We spayed/neutered 50 cats today!!  It was a busy, stressful day but thanks
to our wonderful staff, volunteers, visitors, and my mother (who was
visiting from Michigan) we had a successful day!  

25 of the cats were female, 25 male, 2 were previously altered, 2 pregnant,
3 postpartum, 2 tested positive for FIV, 1 tested positive for both FIV and
FeLV, 32 were feral, 18 tame (including our board member Karen's adorable
cat Fergus!), 3 were euthanized, one died post-operatively, and one escaped.


We are very sad about our cat that died (she had wonderful caretakers that
loved her) and very hopeful that the dear one that escaped will return safe
and sound.  We are doing everything we can to keep her scent alive and let
her know that she has a safe place to eat, rest, stay dry, and hopefully be
captured so she can be spayed and returned to her loving mom Kim as well as
her 2 babies.
Stay tuned, think good thoughts, and I will keep you updated on her status.


Erica

October 9, 2007


Hi All-
We saw 17 cats at the clinic today.  9 were female, 8 male, 1 post partum,
2/3 tested positive for FIV, 0/3 positive for FeLV, 2 were euthanized.  All
17 were feral.
Erica

October 2, 2007


Hi All-
We saw 41 cats  at the clinic today.  22 were female, 19 male, 2 were
previously altered, 2 pregnant, 8 post-partum/lactating, 2/16 tested
positive for FIV, 0/16 tested positive FeLV, 4 were euthanized due to
illness, 28 feral, 13 tame, 2 were in for testing only.
Big day!
Erica