Big news for the animals in and around Redwood City: two clinics are expanding their veterinary services, with one opening a brand-new shelter this week.
Nine Lives Foundation
The Nine Lives Foundation, a cat-centered nonprofit, will open its new no-kill shelter on Saturday. The foundation expects it will be able to perform 10,000 surgeries a year and rescue 2,000 cats annually, as well as provide dental care and lower-cost wellness services.
“This isn’t just a building — it’s a promise to the cats — and to the community — that we’re here to save more lives than ever before,” the Nine Lives Foundation stated in a press release.
The foundation’s former lease expired in March, saying on its site that “every inch of our current space is overflowing.” With close to $2 million in funds raised, Nine Lives is consolidating its cat clinic and adoption center to operate out of a new space located at 749 Brewster Ave. that the organization said is four times the size at 7,200 square feet.
The foundation said it’s seen “extraordinary growth” in the last year, performing more than 6,300 spay and neuter surgeries, over 50% more than the previous year. The operations reduce unwanted litters and improve the health of community cats.
Nine Lives claims it doubled its “Trap-Neuter-Return” program for the second consecutive year, and said that it collaborates with over 50 rescue partners to offer low-cost vet services as well. Adoptions have increased by over a third, according to Nine Lives, with nearly 1,000 cats connected with forever homes and a 43% increase in intake.
SAGE Veterinary Centers
SAGE Veterinary Centers is expanding its Redwood City campus, citing a need to grow its radiology, urgent care and physical rehabilitation departments. The expansion will also level up treatment areas, therapy spaces and diagnostic capabilities. The updated campus is built to improve client flow, modernize the design, enlarge clinical spaces and add cutting-edge medical infrastructure to support greater demand.
“In human medicine, it can be very difficult going to five different offices for a variety of problems,” said Ashley Yeager, SAGE Redwood City’s hospital director. “Our goal is that our patients can come to one place and get the most all-encompassing care.”
SAGE will increase its 22,000-square-foot facility by another 14,000 square feet.
The Redwood City site was chosen because it is the vet center’s biggest facility of the four in the Bay Area, which include San Francisco, Campbell, Dublin and Concord, Yeager said. She’s excited about the state-of-the-art technology that will fill SAGE’s expansion, which will provide the community with “levels of care that were once kind of reserved for human medicine,” she said.
Two San Carlos clinics will also relocate to SAGE’s expanded Redwood City campus, but will maintain their same teams. One is Animal Dental Clinic, a board-certified vet dentistry and oral surgery provider established in 2000. The other is Vet Vision, San Carlos, a full-service ophthalmology clinic that offers vision-related care, diagnostics, and surgical services.
Construction of SAGE Redwood City’s expanded campus is underway, though a date has not yet been set for its grand opening.
