Hello everyone,
We're in! We signed the lease on May 20, and started moving the cats the next day, and as of now about 80% of them are in the new house.
I promised I'd show you the new place once we moved in, so here it is. It's a private video for now and just for people who have supported The Yass House before.
It's not furnished yet and there's still work to do, but I didn't want to make you wait. You trusted me with this and you deserve to see exactly what your support made real.
None of this would have been possible in such a short time without you. You're the reason the cats are saved and that we could pay 3 months of rent upfront to secure the place to finally get the cats out of the apartment they'd been hidden in since January risking being taken away by the authorities.
In the video tour I linked above, you'll see the rooms set aside for adopters and volunteers completely free as promised. There's a garden where the cats can finally go outside again after months shut inside. We still have things to build before we're fully ready: a catio in the garden, a quarantine room for new rescues, and other things to make the space safe and functional. It will all come together over the coming weeks.
If you have ideas or suggestions for the space as you watch the tour, I'd genuinely love to hear them. After everything you have done for us, your input matters to me.
If you donated to help us secure this place, I'm forever grateful. If you haven't donated and would like to help going forward: the 3 months upfront to secure the place have been covered, but the rent comes every month starting from July. If you can afford it, joining on Patreon for even $5 a month with a commitment of at least 3 months will help keep this sustainable without pressure.
You can join here if you'd like to help monthly.
More updates coming soon as the house comes together.
Thank you so much for your Kindness 🙏
Yassine
Hello everyone,
I wanted to inform you that since I last updated you on May 10, we raised what we needed and yesterday we finally reached our fundraising goal.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you who made this possible. I had tears in my eyes more than once reading the messages that came in, and none of this would have happened without you.
To the donors who showed up during the past 2 weeks for the move, I just wanted you to know we made it on time thanks to you 🙏
To everyone else reading this: we raised enough to cover 3 months of rent upfront (first month, deposit, and agency fee) which was the hard part. What comes next is paying rent every month after that on top of food, litter, daily medications, vet visits, and everything else that keeps the cats well cared for and thriving.
If you haven't donated to this campaign and can afford to help us sustain the rescue going forward, please consider joining on Patreon for $5 a month with a commitment of at least 3 months. The reason I'm asking for 3 months specifically is because I'm choosing between several houses based on what we can realistically sustain. If people sign up for one month and cancel, I'm in trouble by month two. A 3-month commitment from enough new monthly donors is what lets me pick a place I know we can stay in without scrambling.
$5 a month for 3 months. If you can't commit to 3 months, please don't sign up. Predictable monthly support is what actually keeps The Yass House alive.
If you'd like to join, click here.
I'm excited to share photos and videos of the new place over the next days once we're in. Once we're settled, I'll be back to posting regular content of the cats, including updates on adoptions and everything I haven't been able to share for the past 4 months.
Thank you again for your Kindness ❤️
Yassine
Hello everyone,
A short update on where we stand since last week's update. In 8 days, this campaign has raised $8,536. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you who donated after the last update. Every dollar is very much needed.
If you've already donated, please ignore this email. If you didn't see the last update, the full story is in the previous email I sent a week ago, or in the latest update on the campaign page. It explains the current situation, why it's urgent and mandatory to move out of the current apartment before May 20 and what we're trying to do.
I'm sending this follow-up because we have 10 days left and time is running short. The combined need before May 20 is between $15,200 and $18,500. That covers the upfront cost of securing the new house which is the first month's rent, the deposit, and the agency fee totaling $10,200 to $13,500 depending on which house we end up renting, plus $5,000 to close out the $10,000 personal loan I took in December 2024 to cover an urgent vet deposit so the cats could keep being treated at the time. The other $5,000 was borrowed from my father. The loan has been costing me $250/month in interest for over a year.
After what's been raised so far, we still need somewhere between $6,700 and $9,900 to close the gap. The lower end gets us a house that works. The higher end gets us a house with the kind of privacy and conditions that mean we won't be in this situation again.
Once we're in the new house, the work that has been frozen for 4 months can start moving again. Since January, the cats have been kept hidden in the current apartment because if the neighbors find out, they will report us to the authorities and the cats will be taken away. In the new house, hopefully that finally changes. The cats can go outside for the first time in four months, adopters can visit and meet the cats in person, volunteers can stay at the house for free since we'll have two rooms set aside for people who want to come help and/or adopt and I can finally start flying cats to their adopters more frequently to accelerate the adoptions as we're well over 120 cats at the moment.
Thank you for the tremendous support that has carried this rescue through so much and for helping us cross this last bridge.
If you'd like to support us reach our goal, click here to donate.
Yassine
Hello everyone,
It's been a while since I last posted an update and I want to bring you up to speed because a lot has happened since November and we're at a turning point.
Last September, a neighbor saw a story I posted of the cats playing and within 24 hours we were threatened with a report to the authorities to have the cats taken away. We had to vacate the apartment they were in. I rushed into a new place, spent close to $10,000 on cages, air purifiers, cameras, carpets to block step noise from the floor below and construction work to soundproof the place. Five days after moving in, the neighbor right under us said he couldn’t sleep because of the cats walking around. The carpets weren’t enough. We had to leave again.
With no funds left, my parents volunteered to move out of the home they'd lived in for 21 years so all the cats could move in as it was the only way. Moving them was faster than moving over a hundred cats somewhere new. We were just under 110 cats at the time. The plan was 2 to 3 weeks while I searched for a house. It's now been 4 months, and with the rescues that have happened since, we're at 120+.
The cats are now living two doors down from those same hostile neighbors on the same floor. They have no idea the cats are there, and the only way to keep it that way has been to run a covert operation for the past 4 months. The windows have been blurred so no one can see in. There's no balcony access, the cats stay entirely inside with internal ventilation only which is why they haven't been outside in 4 months. Garbage goes out at 4am because that's the only time everyone in the building is asleep. Vet visits happen on Wednesdays between 11am and 4pm because that's the one block of hours when every neighbor on that floor is reliably out. Food and litter come by scooter so no car is ever seen near the building. The two cleaners who go in only enter when the security guard signals it's safe. Three weeks ago I added an assistant, my vet’s former assistant who covers the Wednesday and Saturday vet runs and reports back on the cats I can’t see myself.
None of this would have worked without the security guard. He’s been at that building for 5 years and has everyone’s trust, which means he hears the conversations and reports back to me on what neighbors are saying or suspecting. There’s no replacing that. He’s been away from his family for 2 years and his mother is sick. He travels home on May 23 for the national holiday on May 26. The move has to happen before he leaves, because he’s the one who’s going to physically help us coordinate getting 120+ cats out of that apartment safely, the same way he’s coordinated everything else. After May 23, that option closes, which is what’s forcing us to move now. Honestly, we should have moved months ago, but it wasn’t possible financially.
I stopped posting on social media because anyone with an account can see what I post on Instagram or Facebook. Even with the hostile neighbors blocked, I have to assume they have new accounts or fake ones watching. If they find out the cats are still there, they will call the authorities and it would cost the cats' lives.
For 8 years I'd never gone more than a day without seeing my cats. For the last 3 months, I haven't been able to set foot inside. Everyone on that street knows me and my car and if I keep showing up the operation collapses. I rented an Airbnb studio where I treat the cats who need daily medical attention, the ones the vet doesn't have space for and the ones with chronic conditions that need constant monitoring. Right now I have 8 cats with me, all coming back from vet visits with medications I have to administer myself before they can safely go back. I look after them around the clock while they're with me and I pray every day that nothing goes wrong with the rest of the cats in the other apartment I have no access to because I can't be there.
Adoption has always been the goal. Get every one of these cats into a real home where they can finally rest. For 4 months it's been frozen. Adopters abroad who were ready to come and meet the cats have had nowhere to go because no one can set foot in that apartment otherwise neighbors might suspect something. Volunteers who've been asking to come help for years have had nowhere to stay. Maggie, our blind girl, has had a confirmed adopter in Switzerland since last year. I was supposed to fly her there in April but I can't travel until the rent and the loan are settled.
The new house is what unblocks everything. Standalone, long perimeter walls, no neighbors who can complain, a real garden so the cats can finally be outside again, and two guest rooms set aside free of charge for adopters and volunteers. The assistant is moving to full-time so I can start flying cats abroad to their adopters myself. Maggie will be the first one out.
After more than 2 years of waiting on international rescue organizations that promised to help with logistics and never delivered, I'm done waiting. I'm handling adoptions and flights myself now. The flights, the sterilizations of strays I rescue along the way, the emergency surgeries that come up, all of it continues, and your future donations will keep funding that work directly.
But none of it can resume until we're out of this apartment and into a real home. Two things have to happen in the next 19 days. The moment we’re out of that building, the blackout will hopefully end.
To secure the place before May 20, we need three months upfront (first month’s rent, the deposit, and the agency fee) totaling $10,200 to $13,500 depending on which house we land. The better the privacy, the higher the rent.
And I need to close a $10,000 personal loan I took in December 2024 to cover an urgent vet deposit so the cats could keep being treated at the time. It's been costing me $250/month in interest for over a year. I went out of my way to borrow $5,000 from my father to help close it. I'm raising the other $5,000.
Combined need before May 20: between $15,200 and $18,500.
In the 18 months with the help of donors like you, we cleared over $90,000 in vet debt one bill at a time. The cats are alive and the operation is still standing because of people who showed up.
I'm asking you to please help us cross this last bridge. Nothing on the other side can happen until we're across it. The flights, the adoptions, Maggie finally getting on her plane, the cats finally being able to go outside again, all the work that's been frozen for months.
I apologize for asking one more time, but I have no other alternative given the time constraint. Your support is what keeps this rescue alive.
Thank you for being here and for everything you've already done for us.
If you'd like to support us reach our goal, click here to donate.
Yassine
Hi friends,
I wanted to share something special: The Dodo just published a video featuring The Yass House and a rescue I did a about three years ago (you might not recognize me because I didn’t have my long beard back then :-)
More than anything, this is a thank you. Without your support, none of this would be possible. So many cats wouldn’t have gotten treatment, safety, food, or a second chance. Because of you, lives were saved.
Here’s the rescue video if you’d like to watch/share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOxtD7SRi6Q
Thank you for being part of this ❤️
Time to move out. We're leaving all 3 apartments looking for a bigger and safer home for our cat rescues to be under the same roof.
Watch here:
Sincerely,
Yassine
I just published a short video introducing every cat you helped save inside The Yass House.
Thank you for everything!