Celebrating Misty Eyes Animal Center’s Kitty City
This year, in observance of Shelter Appreciation Week, we celebrate the upcoming opening of Misty Eyes Animal Center’s brand new cat shelter—Kitty City—and Brownsburg Animal Clinic’s longstanding relationship with Misty Eyes in their work as a rescue organization.
Misty Eyes was founded in October 2011 by Cherie Fox and Renee Harlor as a not-for-profit, all-volunteer, foster-based animal rescue operation. At the time, Cherie Fox was a client of Brownsburg Animal Clinic.
As the new rescue organization took shape, clinic owner Timea Brady, DVM, and one of her associates then, Matt Cantrell, DVM, took special interest in the new “rescue mission” their client was creating.
“Dr. Brady was my personal pets’ veterinarian well before I founded Misty Eyes,” Fox recalled. “I already just loved and respected Dr. Brady and her staff.
“We started Misty Eyes out pretty slow as we needed to build our foster base and raise the funds to actually take care of the animals that would come to us. However we did pick up much quicker than even I anticipated after Dr. Cantrell joined our Board of Directors and helped facilitate our relations with the county-run animal shelter.”
Previously, the Hendricks County Animal Shelter had not allowed rescue organizations to come in and pull animals from the shelter to place in foster care and offer for adoption through rescue channels.
“After Dr. Cantrell helped us gain access—once we were in at the shelter—things really started moving,” said Fox. “And the support from the community was huge.”
From the outset, Dr. Brady offered Misty Eyes the clinic’s veterinary services for the dogs and cats in foster care at discounted rates—a community service Brownsburg Animal Clinic continues to this day. The clinic has also sponsored booths at Misty Eyes fund-raising events.
These days, Misty Eyes has about 200 animals in its network of approved foster homes requiring about 5% of the clinic’s services.
“Sometimes it can be a challenge balancing the needs of our Misty Eyes patients with those of our pet-owning clients,” said Dr. Brady. “We usually see them as drop-offs to fit in between scheduled appointments or work up over lunch. Most of the Misty Eyes medical cases are pretty complex, and it can make for long, tiring days trying to figure them out.
“A lot of the cases they bring to us are senior pets that maybe haven’t had the best care during their lifetimes,” Dr. Brady continued. “It’s rewarding to be able to help them overcome their issues, like skin problems and dental diseases, and work with Misty Eyes to give them a second lease on life in new forever homes.”
Dr. Brady recalled treating a rescued dog from Misty Eyes whose owner deliberately tied her to his bumper and dragged her down the road. “She had terrible road rash, but her fosters were great. We did tons of bandage changes and warm water therapy and she did overcome her injuries. Despite the obvious trauma, she never stopped trusting us and was such a gentle soul.
“Another especially memorable patient came to us as a skin-and-bones case with parasites and some fractured vertebrae in his back. With some pain meds, deworming and good care, he was adopted and became a happy, normal dog.
“It’s so rewarding to play a role in rescuing these animals.”
“Dr. Brady and her staff have been a part of the Misty Eyes journey from the very beginning,” said Fox. “Without her, we would not have been capable of saving as many lives as we have saved.
“The veterinarians and staff who work for her have all joined the efforts to go above and beyond for the animals that have come to us with medical needs. They don’t hesitate to take on some of our most challenging medical cases.
“Some have even taken our special needs pets into their own homes to monitor and care for them until their conditions stabilized. That level of support has allowed us to double our efforts to take in homeless pets with severe medical needs.”
To show their appreciation for Brownsburg Animal Clinic’s continuing support, Misty Eyes recognizes the clinic as a sponsor of all signature special events. Most recently, they dedicated a suite in their newly-constructed cat shelter to Brownsburg Animal Clinic.
The Challenges of Shelter Medicine
Veterinarians in private practice have always served homeless animals in shelters and foster care. It is only within the past decade that shelter medicine has been formally recognized within veterinary medicine as a defined area of specialized teaching, research and practice.
In 2014, the American Veterinary Medical Association formally recognized shelter medicine as a veterinary specialty, acknowledging that veterinarians who work with or for shelters need special knowledge and skills to care for sheltered pets.
“We don’t consider ourselves shelter medicine specialists,” said Dr. Brady, “but in working with Misty Eyes over the years, we’ve broadened our knowledge of general medicine and surgery to include herd health,” said Dr. Brady. “That means an even greater emphasis on areas like epidemiology, preventive medicine and infectious disease control.”
Among the challenges veterinarians face in caring for patients from shelters and rescue organizations, sheltered and rescued animals often have no available medical records or known health histories.
They may have been neglected or abused, and because of their exposure to many other animals—especially in closed, communal settings—may be at much higher risk for infectious diseases than family pets.
Many sheltered and rescued animals have been abandoned or surrendered for adoption because of behavior problems, so veterinarians working with shelters and rescue organizations are called on to offer extra expertise in behavior modification aimed at resolving issues and helping make the animals more likely to succeed in adoptive homes.
Although not as much of a factor among fostered animals, animals living in shelters may also present behavioral issues stemming from the stresses that come with confinement and living with large groups of animals.
‘Client Communications Can Be A Bit Tricky’
In caring for family pets, the Brownsburg Animal Clinic team communicates directly with owners who are the decision-makers in determining the patient’s course of treatment.
With fostered patients from Misty Eyes, the team interacts with with about 70 active foster caregivers who are living with the animals in their homes and bringing them in for treatment as well as designated contacts at Misty Eyes who choose treatment options and authorize payment for veterinary care.
“Communications about rescued animals can be a bit tricky compared with communications with individual pet owner-clients,” said Dr. Brady. “In terms of client communication, we’re called on to do double duty—counseling with the foster caregiver who brings in the patient and who will carry out any home care and also with the Misty Eyes staff who are the decision-makers.
“We rely a lot on our techs to help the fosters understand what’s going on, explain how to care for the animal once they get back home, and answer any medical questions they may have. Meanwhile, our doctors usually email our primary Misty Eyes contact—a longtime volunteer and board VP, Jennifer McCarty—to report on exam and test results and discuss our diagnoses and recommended treatment options.
“We always call Jennifer and get her authorization ahead of time if we believe a relatively expensive test is called for, but we know we can go ahead with routine lab work without needing to clear it first.
“We are fortunate that as a no-kill rescue, Misty Eyes allows us to do testing and treatment other rescues and shelters might not have the funds for. We do try to keep their bottom line in mind, but honestly, we do the same for all our patients.”
Based on her emailed and telephone interactions with clinic veterinarians and technicians and the agreed-upon treatment, McCarty contacts the patients’ foster caregivers to go over findings and next steps.
“If there’s any further questioning or disagreement with the decisions that have been made—and that happens occasionally with some fosters—we depend on Jennifer to resolve those,” Dr. Brady said.
“Ultimately, Misty Eyes owns the animals and is footing the bills, so unless the fosters want to contribute to the medical fund to cover additional services they feel are necessary, they usually end up deferring to Misty Eyes’ judgment and trusting the process that has saved so many animals over so many years.”
How Kitty City Will Impact Veterinary Care
As Kitty City becomes home to as many as 50 cats and kittens at a time, Dr. Brady anticipates a few differences between caring for the sheltered pets and the fostered ones from Misty Eyes.
“We expect working with our fostered patients to go on as usual, but in some ways our patients from Kitty City will be easier to keep track of, with all the caregiving and communication about them coming directly from the Misty Eyes staff.
“We will also undoubtedly see greater consistency of care for our Kitty City patients than with patients living in foster homes. While they’re all dedicated, committed animal lovers who’ve gone through a stringent application and training process, some foster caregivers know more about animals and their medical care and are able to communicate with us better than others. Their home environments may vary considerably, too, in terms of exposure to communicable diseases—things like kennel cough, ringworm, intestinal parasites and fleas. In some situations, we may see the fostered animals and the caregiver’s personal pets infecting each other.
“In addition to being very thoughtfully designed to provide as home-like an atmosphere as possible, Kitty City will be a much more consistently controlled environment.”
‘Love, Dedication and Care’
During 2023, Misty Eyes took in 737 homeless animals. With room to accommodate 50 cats in its “stress-free luxury suites,” Kitty City will enable Misty Eyes to save more than 400 cats each year.
In the next building phases on its 3.2-acre property in Avon, Misty Eyes plans to construct Canine Country to shelter dogs, followed by an education and training center and a garden area with walking paths.
“Misty Eyes would not be as big and strong as we are today without the support of Brownsburg Animal Clinic,” said Fox. “The love, dedication and care our pets have received at Brownsburg Animal Clinic have not only given so many pets a second chance at a wonderful life but have put we humans who have to deal with the worst cases of neglect or abuse of these poor animals at ease, knowing they are being treated and cared for by the best team.
“I really can’t sing their praises enough.”
To Find Out More
Visit the Misty Eyes Animal Center website and Facebook page.
See also our post, “Fosters provide the love. Misty Eyes provides the rest.” for much more information about Misty Eyes Animal Center operations and volunteer opportunities.
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