Twenty years ago, my in-laws had a beloved elderly cat called the Witch. One morning my father-in-law started his car and realized Witch had crawled under the hood, caught her head in the fan belt and broke her jaw. Their local vet in Gig Harbor would not treat a 19-year-old cat with a broken jaw and a heart murmur, and offered to put her down.
So they instead brought her to the Cat Clinic on N 39th and Stone Way. There, the vet made no promises but wired her jaw and gently tended to her wounds. The Witch lived another three years.
The Cat Clinic opened in 1963 and is the second oldest cat-only clinic on the West Coast. It was privately owned until six years ago, and is now owned by PetVet, a national network of veterinary hospitals. It is staffed by three veterinarians and 14 staff members. The clinic treats as many as 150 patients each week. The Cat Clinic of Seattle is a veterinary hospital dedicated to the wellness and care of Seattle cats, from routine exams and vaccinations to old age and kitten care. The Cat Clinic is accepting new patients.
Why cats only? 
“Owners appreciate that cats are not small dogs and need more specialized care,” said Ann, practice manager. “They don’t like having the cats subjected to dogs when at the hospital when everything is more stressful for them already.”
One Christmas a UPS driver brought in a cat that had been hit by a car. After a full assessment, the vet decided the cat had scrapes and bruises but was in fairly good shape and she was put in a kennel hoping a home would be found for her after the holidays. The day after Christmas a family appeared asking if the clinic had treated a cat hit by a car. They were reunited with their cat – with no charge—and the cat lived for many more years.
The clinic doesn’t do cat adoptions, but a couple of years ago a cat owner died and his family didn’t want an elderly cat. The clinic took care of his health issues and he went home with a staff member. Another client wanted his cat euthanized because it had bad abscesses and needed a leg amputated. That cat, too, was adopted by a staff member.
The clinic would occasionally treat other animals and one time in the ’70s, the Ringling Brothers Circus asked for help with a baby tiger. It was quite the adventure for a small clinic devoted only to cats.
More information on the Cat Clinic can be found at: www.catclinicofseattle.com.