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Humour, humility and humungous hearts prompted good pals Michaela Avery and Ash McCarthy to pool their resources to create a female-led feline haven. By Tracey Porter
Inner West Cat Hospital (IWCH) owners Dr Michaela Avery and vet nurse Ash McCarthy have had their work cut out for them since launching at the peak of COVID-19. Yet as one of a small handful of cat hospitals in Sydney with one of the few all-female executive teams in the sector, IWCH continues to go from strength to strength.
Now ISFM (International Society of Feline Medicine) accredited, the clinic delivers gold standard care to around 2700 felines a year while rehabilitating and rehoming more than 100 stray cats and kittens.
Working closely alongside the Cat Protection Society since its inception, the team’s collective heart is as big as the IWCH client list, with staff donating hundreds of hours each year to assist local charities including Inner City Strays, CatRescue 901, Mini Kitty Commune, Paws and Recover, Maggie’s Rescue, Furever After Inc, and Cat Defence Network.
Forging a friendship
Dr Avery and McCarthy first met while working at the University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney in the ECC department. Bonding over a shared love of cats, wine and ska music, they later ended up working at Vaucluse Vet clinic together where they began tossing around the idea of a cat-only clinic in Newtown, in Sydney’s inner west.
McCarthy, who graduated in 2012 from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons but also has additional qualifications in emergency and critical care, nursing of exotics, and the ISFM diploma in feline nursing, says while some female-heavy clinics can be a bit toxic, this is not the case at IWCH because many of the team have previously worked together and share the same sense of humour and work ethic.
Dr Avery, who confesses to being a “bit of a punk and a feminist” as well as a vet science graduate, says IWCH is the product of a well-executed plan to be both independent and female-led. “Our accountants are a female-led team too. They are so clever and tough, they are like the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ of finance without the need for a ‘Charlie’. We do have men working here from time to time; they just need to be kind, feminist allies and cat men.”
For cats only
At the time they came up with the concept, Dr Avery says her love for her career had taken a beating. Drained from dealing with scared cats, and the stress, noise and physical strain of dealing with large and boisterous dogs, her compassion fatigue was at an all-time high, and she found herself fantasising about opening her ideal clinic.
“It is often assumed that cats are small dogs, but this could not be further from the truth. They are so different in every way, from their behaviour to their weird diseases and the peculiar injuries they get, and working in other clinics, it was making me uncomfortable seeing them so scared in those mixed environments. No matter how good a clinic is, it is impossible for it to be designed for both dogs and cats and meet the needs of both perfectly.”
It is impossible to fit out a clinic that both meets the needs of a loud, confident, active, and physically large predator such as a dog, and a small, reclusive animal that is simultaneously a predator and prey species such as a cat, Dr Avery explains.
“In mixed waiting rooms, I would often see well-meaning clients with a dog let their dog go and ‘meet’ the cat in the carrier next to them, knowing full well that their dog was cat-safe, but the cat doesn’t know that! Then we as vets would have to examine the terrified cat straight after, get meaningful clinical values, and avoid being shredded.
“It’s not somewhere you would want to be when you are feeling unwell and frightened, and not somewhere conducive to healing. Everything here from the machinery to the cages to the silent cupboard doors to the way we handle them and behave around them has been thought out and designed to make cats feel empowered and at ease.”
Hence, the clinic was purpose-built with only the needs and psychology of felines in mind. Key components include quiet waiting rooms, soft-closing kennels, hidey holes, and state-of-the-art feline-specific equipment, medicine and therapeutics.
Wall-to-wall friendly pheromone diffusers, purpose-built examination equipment and a special focus on fear-free handling and interactions help round out the experience.
The pair had been toying with the idea of opening a creche or a boarding facility onsite upstairs or perhaps even opening a second site.
However, after realising how much stress and work one clinic is, any plans for further expansion have been firmly placed on the backburner, Dr Avery says.
“I also wanted to open a cat café next door, or a cat-themed wine bar so we could get all the rescue kittens socialised and adopted, but it seems that opening a clinic takes up a lot more time than I thought, not to mention the finances required, so that idea has been shelved too.”
Secret to their success
While much of their time is spent treating cats with IBD, lymphoma, renal disease, hyperthyroidism, heart disease, diabetes and various infectious diseases, earning enough to support local cat charities and doing more shelter medicine has also always been a priority, Dr Avery says.
Much of the work with the charities involves the trap-neuter-return style of urban cat management where kittens and cats from the street are rescued before being rehomed. Rescuing long-termers from the pound and taking in cats whose owners have passed away is also a key part of this work.
In McCarthy, Dr Avery says she has found someone with a shared desire to help where needed.
[Our accountants] are so clever and tough, they are like the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ of finance without the need for a ‘Charlie’. We do have men working here from time to time; they just need to be kind, feminist allies and cat men.
Dr Michaela Avery, co-owner, IWCH
“Going into business without either of you having a business background is daunting, but when you have a fearless sidekick saying, ‘Yeah, we can do that’, it’s that much easier.
“We both work in a similar way and have very similar and practical ways of thinking and doing things, and our values and ethics align perfectly.
“Ash is almost more a para-vet; she is the most knowledgeable nurse I have ever worked with, and I almost feel like she doesn’t even need me and could do most things herself if she needed to! She is also very brave; she fears no-one and nothing. I can be a bit erratic and chaotic to work with, with a million ideas and things I want to do all at the same time, but she deals with that and keeps me straight and focused.”
McCarthy says that she and Dr Avery also have skill sets that complement each other.
“I like to be very organised and have more of an interest in the admin side of our job, while Michaela is all about the kitties. The clinic would also not look as beautiful as it does without Michaela’s touch. Her strengths? She has so many! But man is she smart. In my eyes, there is nothing she doesn’t know and nothing she can’t do.
“Michaela is also extremely compassionate and kind. Everything she does and every thought she has, it is always with her patients’ best interests in mind. [She] is also very fun to work with.
“We were gifted a sign that says, ‘Do no harm, take no shit’. It hangs proudly in our treatment room, and I feel sums us up perfectly.”
This cat only Practice is just the best and we can’t imagine going anywhere else. Our current senior rescue kitty came to us with a huge range of medical issues and has thrived under their care. I should mention that Dr Michaela is also a skilled surgeon and that Ash is the Cat Whisperer Extrodinaire.