TulsaPets Magazine November 2022

10 TulsaPets • November / December 2022 Cat Doctor New York Veterinarian Dignified Felines by Rowena Mills F or several decades, Dr. Louis J. Camuti was the best-known veterinarian in New York City and one of the most famous in the world. He was the first veterinarian to focus exclusively on felines. He elevated cats to the level of valued companions rather than mousers. Louis Joseph Camuti was born in Parma, Italy, on August 30, 1893. He immigrated to New York with his parents and younger brother on March 17, 1902. Camuti earned a bachelor’s degree at Cornell University in 1916 and started veterinary training before World War I. He enlisted in the First Cav- alry New York National Guard and was discharged as a second lieutenant in the Remount Section. He remained in the National Guard until 1946, when he was transferred to the reserves as a lieutenant colonel. In 1920, he graduated from New York Universi- ty New York State Veterinary College and married Alessandra V. Landi. Dr. Camuti opened a clinic in Mount Vernon, north of New York City. It was a time of transi- tion. Automobiles had replaced horses. Many veterinarians had left the profession or moved to rural areas. A few of them established pet-oriented practices in metropolitan New York, treating mostly dogs. Although Dr. Camuti treated a wide variety of animals, he even- tually focused on cats. He opened a second clinic on Park Avenue in Manhattan. Because many clients were gone during the day, it was more convenient for him to make house calls in the evening. After 1945, Dr. Camuti closed his Park Avenue office and began a mobile practice, taking his wife along to “explain to police why we were parked in front of a fire hydrant.” Dr. Camuti had celebrity clients, including Olivia de Havilland, James Mason, Imogene Coca, and Tallulah Bankhead. His daughter, Nina Camuti Danielsen, said, “I noticed that his ap- pearances on radio and television started to almost snowball respect for cats.” He wrote a column for a veterinary journal, “Feline Practice,” and coauthored two books, “Park Avenue Vet” (1962) and “All My Patients Are under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor” (1980). At 87, in February 1981, Dr. Camuti had a car- diac pacemaker installed. He was treating patients less than a week after he left the hospital. On February 24, he had his pacemaker adjusted and visited a feline patient in New York. He was driv- ing home to Mount Vernon with his wife when he had a fatal heart attack. His daughter said, “Dad came along with his own natural love for the felines and he gave dignity to them.” In Dr. Camuti’s words, “If there is anything more important than love in the relationship between a pet and its owner, I don’t know what it is.” The Dr. Louis J. Camuti Memorial Fund at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Feline Health Center commemo- rates his commitment to cats. FOCUS ON FELINES Famous veterinarian Dr. Louis J. Camuti wrote two books about his NewYork feline practice, including “All My Patients Are under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor.” Pet Portraits by Hilary Hilary Clark Text 918.230.8652 hclark0886@outlook.com A DEL I GHTFUL HOL I DAY G I FT!