A new house for our cats and us

My mom and I moved from an apartment to a house on October 15th 2007. It was a property under the care of my uncle, whose owner was actually the uncle of his wife, but he lived in the United States at the time. It happened that there was an abandoned cat living in the patio, we found out that it was a female and heard from a kid that her name was Lola. She won our hearts and we started feeding her and having a space for her. She was a lovely cat. Back then we were pretty "new" to what would follow, to became a team in care for the cats and kittens of the neighborhood and over the years spread the word about the need to be responsible in the adoption of a four-legged friend. That came with the years, as people in the area started abandoning kittens at our door, and we didn’t have the heart to reject. These kittens growed with us, as we didn’t have any luck trying to put them in adoption and we ended up feeling love for them. People need to be concious of the damage they can cause by simply not to neuter their pets and so they have offspring, kittens that no one wants and end up abandoned on the streets where they can die of hunger or illness.

To this day we have helped in every way we can, my mom and I have contributed in every way we can to help them, my mom has a bazzar shop and has organized exhibitions of her artcrafts, souveniers and special things for sale to the benefit of the cats, I am a painter and have team-up to raise funds to continue our support, we have visited other shelters and also as volunteers to feed the cats of the biggest (and sadly forced) shelter of cats in Puerto Vallarta, The Cuale Island, where hundreds of abandoned cats live, in a place that wasn't designed for them, but that some people have considered appropiate for that matter. "Our" cats live with us, some indoors, and some outside in the patio, but secure enough. Now the original owner has returned from the United States in order to sell the house. He loves cats and has one himself, but he has been in the need to sell the property in which we live in with our cats, and unfortunately to us he is asking for it a price that is beyond our budget. It is an old house, and unfortunately its roof has been damaged with the heavy rains of this past summer. We had hoped to be able to buy it, fix some details that demanded to be repaired and continue living here along with our cat refugee. The owner claims the house has the potential to become a condominium complex with a parking lot, therefore he is asking for a big sum of money. We still do not know what the plans are for the property and that has us worried and with the fear that soon we’ll be asked to give up the house, and we are not prepared yet to make the big move. I have found some places for rent with possibilities, but none of them accept pets, and with our 20 cats, that makes things very difficult. I have found a property for sale with similar characteristics (but in a lot better condition) but still, out of our budget.

We are prepared for anything at this point, but determined to persist as we don't want to put the cats back on the street, they have been our joy, our friends, our family. We can't leave them behind. Everytime I see their sad faces (as if they can understand what is going on) my heart breaks, but makes me stand up for them and find them a home. I also see my mother very tired for so many efforts after all these years and I would like to somehow help her even more by taking her to live in a safe place, along with the cats. We could move to a smaller house or even an apartment if it wasn't for them, but we need a house with similar characteristics for the feral cats that live outdoors in the patio. It may be a lost case, and everything seems to be against us, but it may not hurt to ask. If any of you, animal lovers, cat lovers, would like to give us a little hand on this, we will greatly appreciate it. It is not for us, but them...From the bottom of our hearts, many thanks to all!