- March 19, 2025
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Cat Care Clinic owners Kenny and Dr. Amber Carter. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner veterinarian Dr. Amber Carter listens to one of her patient's heartbeat and breathing in Ormond Beach.Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner veternarian Dr. Amber Carter listens to one of her patient's heartbeat and breathing with lead veterinary technician Emily Blalock (right) in Ormond Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic lead veterinary technician Emily Blalock (left) helps feline patient Lily in Ormond Beach. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owners Kenny and Dr. Amber Carter. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owners Kenny and Dr. Amber Carter. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner Dr. Amber Carter listens to Lily's breathing in one of the exam rooms. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner Dr. Amber Carter checks Lily's eyes in one of the exam rooms. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner Dr. Amber Carter checks Lily's eyes in one of the exam rooms. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner Dr. Amber Carter checks her patient Lily in one of the exam rooms. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic offers veterinary services for feline patients like Charlee. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic veterinarians, technicians and staff can check the white board regarding what procedures their patients needed. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic employee Julia Cramer holds Butters in the boarding area of the facility. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic cat Apache watches over the daily activities at the facility. Photo by Michele Meyers
At Cat Care Clinic it is always busy behind the scenes where veterinarians and technicians perform surgeries, dental procedures and many other feline caretaking functions. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic technicians (left to right) Angela Caputi, Melanie Ryback and Kirsten Holschen stay busy taking care of their feline clients. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic owner Dr. Amber Carter (right) administers a shot to one of her feline patients while a veterinary technician offers a treat as a distraction. Photo by Michele Meyers
Charlee waits patiently in Cat Care Clinic's surgical area of the facility. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cat Care Clinic veterinary technician Melanie "M.J." Jenkins moves Charlee back to her kennel after her examination. Photo by Michele Meyers
Dr. Amber Carter knew she wanted to specialize in feline veterinary medicine while in college, before she ever stepped foot inside Cat Care Clinic in Ormond Beach.
And after purchasing the business in 2015, Dr. Carter has kept Cat Care Clinic’s 25-year legacy alive.
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, the clinic will be hosting a 25th Anniversary Open House. Located at 320 S. Yonge St., Cat Care Clinic is inviting the public to take self-guided tours of the facility, as well as purchase $5 raffle tickets to win free lab work, exams, pet strollers and more. A coffee bar, snacks and swag bags will be available during the event, which is free to the public.
“It’s a celebration for us as well as the community,” Dr. Carter said. “This is a thank you to the community. Here we are in this beach town and we have one of the busiest cat hospitals in the country.”
Dr. Carter and her husband Kenny Carter purchased the business from Dr. Leslie Nixon and her spouse John Nixon, who founded Cat Care Clinic in 2000.
Within five years of opening the clinic in a small shopping plaza on Granada Boulevard, the Nixons relocated their business to the current 4,000-square-foot space on Yonge Street, which was built to serve the needs of feline-only practitioners.
As cats and their humans enter the facility, they are greeted by staff in the reception area, before being seen in one of the four examination rooms. There is a main treatment area with an oxygen cage for cats in respiratory distress, a space for digital X-rays, a surgical suite and a full endoscope, which allows them to perform rhinoscopy, otoscopy and cystoscopy procedures, to name a few. The clinic also has an in-house laboratory where the staff can get immediate test results regarding a patient’s blood, chemistry, urinalysis, cultures and thyroid.
Really, it’s a celebration for us as well as the community. This is a thank you to the community. Here we are in this beach town and we have one of the busiest cat hospitals in the country." — Dr. Amber Carter, Cat Care Clinic owner
Kenny Carter is Cat Care Clinic’s practice manager. He grew up on a small dairy farm in North Carolina where, he said, cats were part of the landscape. He met Dr. Carter at Duke University, where he was teaching ballet. She was a drama major, focusing on stage management.
“I never knew anyone who took a cat to a vet in my life,” Kenny Carter said. “It was only when Dr. Carter said to me, when she was in vet school, that she wanted to focus on feline medicine, that I even knew that was a thing.”
After moving to San Diego, California, to accept a job at the La Jolla Playhouse, Dr. Carter said she was contemplating a career change and decided to peruse the “American Almanac of Jobs and Salaries”. As soon as she read the description for a veterinarian, Dr. Carter said she knew she wanted to pursue that career path.
The couple moved to Florida where Dr. Carter earned a degree in molecular biology from the University of Central Florida. She then attended the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. In college, she shifted her focus to feline-only practices.
“I decided on a feline-only practice because cats are just such amazing creatures and I love the environment of a feline-only practice with no barking dogs,” she said.
Dr. Carter was hired by Dr. Nixon after she graduated in 2007. She left in 2010, but returned in 2014 after receiving an email from the Nixons asking if she was interested in purchasing Cat Care Clinic.
Currently, five veterinarians work at the clinic, including Dr. Carter and former owner Dr. Nixon. Both Carter and Nixon are board-certified in feline practice from the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. There are also three receptionists, eight veterinary technicians and additional support staff.
Receptionist Jenn Lo started working at Cat Care Clinic in 2007. She said there is no better place to work.
“They take care of us,” Lo said. “Part of the job is educating people but the best part of the job is the cats. I wouldn’t be here if the Carters weren’t here.”
Client and retired Pathways Elementary School teacher Michele Dennis said she has been taking her cats to the clinic since it opened in 2000.
“No matter when I come in here, they are awesome,” she said. “They cater to us. They really care about these cats. They will do anything to help them. I would recommend them to anybody.”
Dr. Carter said their mission is to practice the best medicine, have the best cat and client experience and take care of their employees.
“We can practice good medicine all day long, but if we don’t have a good patient and client experience then the medicine doesn’t matter,” she said. “You have to practice all three of those as well as take care of your employees so they can provide those things.”
Celebrating 25 years is a major milestone, Dr. Carter said, hence why the clinic is hosting a community event. But it’s also about the cats.
“The event is to help bring awareness to the fact that cats need to come to the vet every year and cats need medical care too,” Dr. Carter said. “We’re here to make that a positive experience for them.”
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