Dr. Louis J. Camuti was a veterinarian in the New York metropolitan area for 60 years. His practice was limited to the treatment of cats, many of them belonging to celebrities. Dr. Camuti often made house calls, sometimes as many as 30 a week.
His autobiography, ''All My Patients Are Under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor,'' was published in 1980 by Simon & Schuster. He once told an interviewer that when he was 11 and ill with typhoid, a fire had broken out in his home and his cat hopped on his chest and breathed in his face.
''As if to clear away the smoke and protect me from the fire,'' he said, ''the cat stayed on my chest until my mother rushed into my room.''
Dr. Camuti was born in Parma, Italy. He received his veterinary surgeon's degree from New York University in 1920.
Former patients and friends honor his pioneering commitment to the health of cats through the Dr. Louis J. Camuti Memorial Fund at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Feline Health Center, which continues his life’s work.
