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Change One Life Cat Sanctuary hasn't added a story.
In January 2025, after 13 years of hard work rescuing and caring for abandoned cats, we got an eviction order, and at the end of this year we must to leave our home.
If we don’t find a new place before the end of the year, we will end up on the streets with all the cats we’ve rescued over the years.
There is no way to survive on the streets with all the elderly and sick animals we care for.
We have been looking for a place to rent for a long time now, but with the current surreal real estate market, it’s been mission impossible to find one. There are only villas for rich people or tourists, at abnormally high prices that are only available for people with a very high income, a permanent work contract and bank guarantee, and on top of that nobody wants to rent their place to people with companion animals.
In summary, in today’s world, people like us no longer have access to renting a house.
So, at this point, if we want to keep up the hope that we can survive, the only option left is to try to buy a house.
We know it won’t be easy to raise the necessary funds, but at least, unlike renting, the only requirement for buying a house is to have enough money.
Do we have an alternative? Surrender and end up living on the streets.
So, despite all the challenges, we might as well give it a try; the only thing that we know for sure is that we are either saved together or we all die together, because whatever happens we will never abandon our cats.
To grasp how much we needed to raise, we began looking into house prices for sale, only to swiftly realize that the sales market is also affected by a real estate bubble.
Skyrocketing prices and very few houses for sale, most of them affordable only for rich people, which means the sale market is not accessible either.
Just when we were losing hope and everything seemed utterly impossible, we received the most unexpected news.
Through an acquaintance, I learned that the house where we live will be listed for sale.
I managed to meet with a representative of the new owners—the same people who are evicting us at the end of this year – and he confirmed that they are selling the property and mentioned that they never considered offering it to us because they knew we lacked the financial means.
I told him that we might know some people who could help us purchase the house and asked if they could grant us some time to secure the necessary funds before listing it on the market.
He said that we have the option to purchase the house until the end of the year, by the time we are expected to vacate the apartment. Moreover, we could secure the property by making a reservation with a down payment of 30,000 euros to ensure it is not sold to another buyer.
However, if we fail to gather the necessary funds in time, the house will be listed on the real estate market.
Given our dire circumstances, this opportunity is a true miracle.
Finally, a place at a reasonable price and with added benefits.
We can stay in a place that is already catproof and that has been our home for the last 15 years, which means we can all be saved ensuring NO STRESS for the cats!
To buy the house, we need to raise a total of 245,000€ (euros). To reserve it, we must deliver 30,000€ (euros), which will be our fundraiser first milestone.
BREAKDOWN (245.000€)
- 160.000€ (House price)
- 24.000€ (15% Property taxes)
- 33.600€ (21% Donation tax on full house price including property taxes)
- 24.500€ (10% Fees fundraiser page and payment processors)
- 2.900€ (Consultation fees for administrative & tributary procedures)
Our fate now rests in the hands of donors who, upon reading our story, will decide if we are worthy of their support and deserve to be saved.
Please remember, any donation, whether it’s $10 or $10,000, will play a crucial role in saving us. Your contribution, regardless of the amount, large or small, will be vital in advancing our cause and securing our future.
May God save us all!
Please SHARE this page so we can reach more kind-hearted people like you, thank you!
Highlights
See all activity13About 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
Quick Links
If you want to know how we got to this difficult situation click here
If you’d like to learn more about our story click here
If you’d like to learn more about our rescues click here
If you’d like to learn more about our work outside the sanctuary click here
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