My name is Paul, and I'm one of the co-founders of Change One Life Cat Sanctuary, the place Jackie (my wife) and I have been running, all on our own, for more than a decade now.
Below, I’ll briefly explain the situation of emergency we are facing right now, how this is affecting us and why we are reaching out to the world to ask for financial support so that we don't end up on the streets along with all our rescues.
Last month, a representative of a “vulture fund” came knocking on our door to tell us that they had bulk-bought some properties in our building including the apartment we rent and that they were no longer interested in renting. They said we must leave the apartment vacant, threating us with forced eviction, making it clear they’d use all the power such big investors have in their hands to kick us out.
It was an indescribable shattering event that left us numb and out of breath; we couldn’t believe what was happening to us and it felt as if we had gone straight to hell. We spent a lot of days feeling lost and worried, not knowing what to do.
Having to face this event in our vulnerable state of mind and in addition to the difficult situation we were already going through [ you can find it explained in detail on our website] was too much to bear. But as often happens in life, when it rains, it pours!
During the following weeks, while we were still in shock and not sure of what decision to make, the same person accompanied now by two well-built thugs, came back a few times to threaten us again and again.
A real nightmare that feels surreal for people like Jackie and I whose only purpose in life is to help homeless animals and want nothing to do with violent acts or threats.
I can assure you that not feeling safe at home when one has the responsibility of protecting so many rescue animals in one’s care, is one of the most devastating feelings ever, one of the worst I’ve ever experienced in my life, something I cannot put into words.
Even
though we don’t have enough financial means, in such threatening
situation we had no option but to hire a lawyer for consultation, to
legally represent us and defend our rights as tenants. In other words,
we decided to fight against these “organized criminals”.
Our rescues, without a roof over their heads, will soon be dead so to protect them we will put up a fight until the end.
To
state our case, we had to pay the lawyer an advance, so we had to use
up the funds we had to cover Sanctuary expenses in the next few
months (rent, utilities, vets, food, meds, litter, etc.).
To
state our case, we had to pay the lawyer an advance, so we had to use
up the funds we had to cover Sanctuary expenses in the next few
months (rent, utilities, vets, food, meds, litter, etc.).We had to decide whether to pay someone who can legally represent us and help us avoid ending up on the streets or keeping the money we had to survive for a few more months. It was a no-brainer; we chose to fight for our rights. On the streets, we won’t be able to survive nor keep on fighting to protect these poor innocent souls.
But now we are broke, and we can no longer buy food, meds, or litter, pay for electricity and water supply, nor vet care. Most importantly, we have no money to pay rent which is exactly what vulture fund people need to kick us out; failing to pay the rent will give them the power to have us legally evicted in no time.
And that’s why we were left with no other option but to reach out to you and to the world, and appeal to your generosity.
Without any help, how could two ordinary people like Jackie and I fight against these wealthy giant vulture funds?
In my humble opinion, this shattering event is not something that is randomly happening to us, but something greater than us, something that represents the eternal battle between good and evil; and that’s one more reason why we believe we should not let these people win.
Without your help, we’ll be completely out of food and meds for our rescues by next week and won’t be able to pay for rent either which means we’d be at their mercy and our lawyer won’t be able to do anything to defend us as they could have us legally evicted due to non-payment; in other words, it’d be the end of everything!
Today I’m here to ask you to support us during our legal battle against this great injustice by donating any amount so that we don’t lose our home and our rescues don’t end up on the streets again. Please help us!
Share this page so we can reach more kind-hearted people like you, thank you!
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About Us
At the end of 2012, when a wave of evictions took place due to the housing market crash caused by the subprime mortgage crisis that occurred between 2007-2010, the streets were flooded with abandoned house cats trying to fend for themselves; that’s exactly when the story of Change One Life Cat Sanctuary began.
Witnessing everyday homeless cats being ran over, neglected, abused and ignored as they were crying out for help and dying on the streets, moved us (me and my wife) to leave our conventional living to start rescuing all the cats that we could get off the streets to nurse them back to health and protect them.
At the same time, we started caring for those we couldn’t rescue by providing food and fresh water daily.
"That’s how our story began and since then it’s been ten years of trying to cope with endless logistical difficulties, financial problems and personal struggle."
Sanctuary co-founders Jackie and Paul with first rescue Felix, back in December 2012 when they still led an ordinary life.
We, the co-founders and caregivers of the Sanctuary, are a couple of immigrants in our late 50’s who are currently unemployed and live rented.
It’s always been just the two of us so in order to carry on we’ve had to make endless sacrifices, forget about having a regular job or a steady income and in doing so we turned our personal lives upside down...
Sanctuary co-founders Jackie and Paul with their rescues Oliver, Kitty and Blackberry Melody, now in 2023.
"We gave up everything to give this cause all our time, knowledge, love and compassion."
We started our mission by selling the very few things we owned to kickstart our cat rescue project and cover the initial expenses of our small sanctuary.
Afterwards and until this day, we have been able to carry on thanks to our sponsoring program, the private donations we receive from our supporters, and in addition, to an irregular income my wife and I get every now and then from some of the work we do online, which also helps cover part of our cat sanctuary expenses.
In 2015, with the help of private donations they could leave behind the old playground Paul had made out of cardboard boxes and were able to buy cat furniture and supplies.
"Over the last decade, we’ve been through so much it’d be impossible to list here all the sacrifices made and the challenges we had to face to stay alive and protect the lives of our rescues."
So, if you wish to learn a bit more about us, we invite you to read our first newsletter to find a detailed summary of our journey since the early beginnings, or CLICK HERE to visit Our Website
