Since we moved to the new place back in June, Miracle has been having a difficult time adjusting. He gets stressed very easily, especially with changes in his environment and being around cats he wasn’t used to, and two days after the move his belly suddenly started getting bigger.
When I took him to the vet, he found out that what looked like bloating was actually fluid accumulating in his abdomen. After further testing, including an ultrasound and fNT-proBNP bloodwork, and that is when we discovered that Miracle has heart failure.
The fluid continued building up until his belly became so large that he could no longer properly clean himself after using the litter box. It was becoming extremely uncomfortable for him, but it was also becoming difficult for both of us because every time he used his litter box during the night, I had to wake up and clean him immediately so he wouldn’t get himself or the bed dirty. I was constantly losing sleep which would then affect my entire day.
At the same time, I couldn’t simply leave Miracle alone in another room because he would cry nonstop until I came back. I also didn’t want to put him around the other cats because stress affects him so easily, and with his heart condition I want to avoid putting any unnecessary pressure on him. So for now, I need to be there with him as much as possible.
Eventually his belly became so uncomfortable and heavy that fluid had to me removed, and he is finally much lighter now. Seeing him able to move around more comfortably again has been such a relief.
Miracle is now taking his heart medication. I’m really hoping that with treatment we can keep the fluid under control and prevent him from becoming this bloated again.
Miracle has already been through so much in his life, and now he has another battle ahead of him. Please keep this little boy in your prayers.
Your support always makes a difference, especially in months like this one (September) when so many rescues and emergencies have happened at the same time. I’m very thankful to everyone who has helped me get through this one and make sure Miracle and the others receive the care they need.
I can’t thank you enough for supporting my work. Your support helps me keep caring for cats like Maggie even when finding them a family takes years.
I’m so happy to finally share this part of her story with you. Every month comes with its own challenges and without your support, none of this would have been possible 🙏
Maggie's bill is included inside the fundraiser among other unpaid veterinary bills. If you'd like to check the bill and contribute toward a small part of Maggie’s remaining vet bill, click here.
For now, I’m so happy to share Maggie finally enjoying life in her forever home ❤️
When I shared the news that Maggie had finally made it to Serbia after almost four years at the vet clinic, I didn't want the amazing news about Maggie finally reaching her adopter to overshadow what happened with the matching donation because I felt this deserved its own post.
Over about a month and a half, you helped me accumulate $6,324 in donations. By August 31, when it was time for the matching donation to be completed, the incredibly generous donor who had offered to match up to $7,500 decided to round that amount up and contributed $6,500.
I cannot explain how much that helped at exactly the right time because before Maggie could finally leave the vet after spending almost four years inside the cage, I needed to pay a significant part of the balance she had accumulated during all those years. The two vet clinics I work with charge me until the animal is out of the clinic. As you can imagine, keeping a cat at a veterinary clinic for that long creates a very large bill and the $6,500 matching donation helped me cover a significant portion of Maggie’s balance.
That's why I wanted to come back to this separately and properly thank everyone who made it possible. The donor who offered the match did something incredibly generous but that match only became possible because so many of you contributed during those weeks and helped me reach $6,324 in the first place to help with the house.
Now that Maggie is safely in Serbia, I also want to show you exactly what remains from those four years at the veterinary clinic.
After everything that has already been paid, there are exactly 541 days of Maggie’s stay that are still unpaid.
Since the bill is handwritten in French and all of the amounts are in Moroccan dirhams (MAD), I want to explain what you are looking at.
The main amount you will see on the front of the bill is for Maggie's remaining 541 days at the clinic which bring the total remaining balance to 41,270 MAD, approximately $4,427 USD.
Below is the front of the bill which shows the breakdown of those remaining 541 days and the additional charges.
The other side of the same bill is below. It simply says “Total: 41.270” at the top, which means 41,270 Moroccan dirhams which is approximately $4,427 USD.
I deliberately didn't include this in Maggie’s arrival update because after everything she had been through, I wanted that post to simply be about celebrating the fact that she had finally made it to her home. This update is about showing everyone who supported the matching donation what that support actually accomplished.
A huge part of Maggie’s accumulated bill was covered because of that match, and I am incredibly grateful to every person who contributed toward the $6,324 and to the donor who generously rounded the matching contribution up to $6,500.
If anyone would still like to help toward the remaining 541 unpaid days, any contribution would of course be incredibly helpful and appreciated. But more than anything, I wanted everyone who participated in the match to know that your support made a very real difference at exactly the moment Maggie was finally leaving the vet after four long years.
I promised you that I would share an update on September 5, the day Maggie was supposed to travel, but the journey became much more complicated than I ever expected and I did not want to post anything until I knew with certainty that she had safely reached her final destination.
For those who may not know Maggie’s story, she is blind and has spent almost four years living at the vet because I was never able to find the right home for her. After all this time, she finally found an adopter in Serbia who was willing to give her the life she deserves, and Kendra, an incredible person who volunteered to be her flight companion, traveled all the way from the United States to Morocco specifically to help me take Maggie to her new home.
We had been planning this trip for months, but shortly before the flight I discovered something that completely changed everything: Serbia is not part of the European Union. Morocco already has an established procedure and paperwork for cats traveling to EU countries, but there was no established procedure for a cat traveling directly from Morocco to Serbia because apparently there had never been a need for it before. I immediately contacted the Moroccan veterinary authorities and applied for authorization, but I was told that the process could take around three weeks and possibly even longer.
The problem was that Kendra had already traveled all the way from the United States to Morocco, everything had already been organized around Maggie finally leaving after four years and there was absolutely no way I was going to let her entire trip be for nothing if there was still another possible solution.
The only option we had was for Maggie to first travel to a country inside the European Union using the paperwork she already had and then continue from there to Serbia by land. This meant changing the entire trip at the very last minute, finding another flight, deciding which EU country we could use, organizing transportation from that country to Serbia and getting Maggie’s paperwork changed before the government veterinary office closed for the weekend.
We finally managed to put everything together around one hour before the veterinary government office closed its doors. We decided that Maggie and her flight companion would fly to Zagreb, Croatia due to the proximity to the Serbian border, because Croatia is part of the European Union and Maggie already had all the paperwork required to enter there by plane.
There is no direct flight from Morocco to Croatia so their route was Casablanca to Madrid and then Madrid to Zagreb.
They arrived in Zagreb late on Saturday, and because there was no van available to take them across the border to Serbia that night, we had to arrange an Airbnb where Kendra and Maggie could stay until the following day. On Sunday, they were able to take a van from Croatia toward Belgrade and continue the final part of the journey by land.
Continuing from Croatia into Serbia involved a risk. Maggie had legitimate paperwork allowing her to travel from Morocco into the European Union, but we still did not have an established Morocco-to-Serbia authorization because that process could have taken several weeks. There was no clear procedure we could rely on for a cat originating from Morocco and ultimately entering Serbia, but after everything that had already happened, we had to decide whether to take that risk or abandon the entire trip.
It was not a decision we took lightly, but Kendra had crossed an ocean specifically to help Maggie, we had managed to get the EU paperwork changed just before the office closed, Maggie had already waited four years for this opportunity, and there was no guarantee that we would be able to recreate all of this again several weeks later. We decided to continue and hope that they would be allowed through the Serbian border.
This is also the reason I did not post an update while they were traveling. Even after Maggie successfully entered Croatia, I still did not know whether she would actually be allowed to cross into Serbia, and I did not want to tell everyone that she had made it until I knew she was really there.
Yesterday at around 10:03 PM my time, which was 11:03 PM Serbian time, I finally received the message that they had successfully crossed the Serbian border where they waited for around an hour and a half. Even then, I waited because I wanted confirmation that Maggie had actually reached her final destination safely. It was only around 4 AM that I received the final message and knew that the journey we had been planning for so long was finally over.
After four years of living inside a cage at the vet, Maggie now has the opportunity to experience what life is supposed to feel like for a normal cat, where she can move around freely, sleep in a home, receive individual attention and affection and finally belong to someone instead of spending year after year waiting at the clinic.
I cannot thank Kendra enough for everything she did for Maggie. She traveled all the way from the United States to Morocco, and when our original plan completely fell apart she did not give up. She took Maggie through Madrid, flew with her to Croatia, spent the night with her there, traveled by van the following day and stayed with her through the uncertainty of crossing the Serbian border until Maggie finally reached her destination.
I also want to thank every single person who donated to the fundraiser, shared Maggie’s story, sent messages, tried to help us find transportation or supported The Yass House in any way. When everything changed at the last minute, all I had left from the donations gave me the ability to book a completely different flight and arrange accommodation in Croatia.
Many of you donated both to help me continue taking care of all the cats at The Yass House and to help make Maggie’s adoption possible, and I want you to know that your support directly contributed to giving her this chance after four very long years.
There were many moments during these past few days when I genuinely did not know whether we were going to make it, especially when the route we had planned for months suddenly became impossible, but every time another problem appeared we tried to find another solution because I could not accept the idea of Maggie losing this opportunity after waiting for so long.
Maggie is now in Serbia with her adopter, and after four years at the vet clinic she finally gets the chance to live the kind of life we always hoped she would have.
I'm very grateful to each and every beautiful soul who helped make this adoption possible.
Hello everyone,
I want to share a special moment with you that's been almost four years in the making. I finally picked up Maggie from the vet clinic and she's with me now.
For those who missed her story, Maggie is a blind cat that I rescued back in November 2022 and right after, she went through surgeries to remove both her eyes. She gets deeply stressed around other cats, and with the number of cats in my care, the clinic was the only place where she could live away from them. So she stayed there longer than any rescue I've ever had. Along the way she caught calicivirus and FIP, lost a lot of weight and fought her way back to perfect health.
But the years in a cage left one last thing to heal: she became less social and stopped trusting people, because for years, hands mostly meant an injection or medication, and that stayed with her. She's scared of hands that even trimming her claws was difficult. So now she has her own quiet room for the first time in her life, she's learning what sleeping on a bed feels like, no cage and no bars, and I'm spending most of my time with her over the next two weeks teaching her that hands are safe. Her new family in Serbia is waiting, a home with no other cats and all the love just for her, and that's exactly what she needed.
Her flight companion lands in Casablanca on September 3 and Maggie flies on September 5, on the flights you helped fund. As promised, I'll send you the video of her boarding and of the moment she arrives at her new home.
I'm forever grateful for your tremendous support, and for everyone involved in making this adoption and this trip happen. You all gave Maggie the life she deserves.
Yassine
Hello, I hope you're doing amazing.
Three days ago I shared what's left to finish the house and since then exactly $2,390 had been donated. That brings us to about $9,700 raised out of the $21,800 goal. With about $10,500 left mostly for the air conditioning and the air purifiers.
Before anything, here's the garden being worked on where we will set a big catio and the recovery cages that arrived, so you can see what your donations are doing.
I got a surprise message from one of The Yass House donors offering to match all donations regardless of the size, dollar for dollar amounting up to a total of $7,500, which means every $10 becomes $20. With the match, around $5,300 in donations would close the rest of the goal and finish the house, and as always, any amount helps, especially now that it counts double.
If you'd like to help me reach the goal while the match lasts, you can click here to donate.
As for Maggie, her flights are purchased from Miami to Casablanca and from Casablanca to Belgrade. In the meantime, we're getting the house ready as fast as we can so that the adopters and flight volunteers who come for the cats can settle at the new place, and if you'd like to come and visit the cats, you're very welcome. We have two rooms available, it's free of charge.
Without you, none of this would have been possible. Thank you to each and every one of you for your love and support 🙏
Yassine
Hello everyone,
In case you missed the previous update, here's what's going on. Two weeks ago I shared a $21,800 goal: flying our blind girl Maggie from Morocco to the family who adopted her in Serbia after almost four years living at the vet, and finishing the house the cats live in that we rented 3 months ago, which means air conditioning, air purifiers, recovery cages to save on vet costs, and rebuilding the garden so the cats can have fun outdoors.
We raised almost $7,300 of the $21,800 goal. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Here is what your donations covered so far. The money for Maggie's flights is set aside in full (more on the booking below). The garden clearing and rebuild is paid, and the work has already started over a week ago, which is the first step toward the catio so the cats can finally go out without risking them jumping outside the house. The first of the 8 air conditioning units was secured to help a little bit with this heat. Also, the second batch of custom recovery cages is now fully covered as I had already paid half from my pocket before raising funds so they could start being built, and your donations covered the rest paid when they were delivered. That's a third of the goal in two weeks.
Here is what's left. The remaining 7 air conditioning units at about $1,100 each, $7,700 in total (the quiet Wind Free kind that don't blow air directly at the cats so they don't get sick). The 16 air purifiers to keep the air breathable with all the cats indoors, around $5,200. About $12,900 in total, on top of the weekly vet bills, the food, litter and monthly rent that always come first. The windows have been sealed since June when a curtain accident opened them overnight and most of the cats got out (we brought almost everyone back except three that are still missing, and the windows haven't opened since). With this August heat, I'm making sure air conditioning comes first before the heat peaks (August 10-15).
If you'd like to support us reach this goal before August 10, you can click here to donate.
One more thing. I haven't booked Maggie's flights yet, here is why. After dropping Maggie in Serbia, the person escorting her flies back home to Miami, FL. If we find an adopter in time, she will come back through Casablanca on her way home, pick up one or two of our rescues, and fly them to their adopters in the US. So before booking everything, I'm trying my best to fill those seats. The cats' flights would be covered thanks to your donations. The adopter would only need to pick up the cat in Florida in September, as long as they're able to afford vet care, good nutrition and a good overall environment. If you or someone you know already have one or more cats and would like to give a chance to a cat from a country that currently "cleans up" the streets from cats and dogs to organize the World Cup 2030, reply to this email and we'll jump on a video call, I'll introduce you to the cats and send you photos so you can pick the cat you want. I can only hold the booking a few more days so if you're interested, please don't wait.
As always, I'll update you here with a video once we reach the goal so you can see exactly what your donations did. I will also post a video of Maggie boarding her flight to her new home in September and hopefully one or two more cats flying to their new home in the US :)
Thank you for being here and for everything you've already done for me and the cats 🙏
If you'd like to help, you can donate here.
Yassine
Hello everyone,
Let me start with news I've been waiting almost four years to write.
Maggie, our blind girl, has been living at the vet since I rescued her in November 2022, because she was stressed around other cats and I could never find her an adopter. That wait is over. Maggie is going to the mother of the adopter I first announced 2 months ago. After losing her own cat, she heard Maggie's story and asked for her. She lives in Serbia, and Maggie is going home to her.
The person escorting Maggie is the same person who helped me with adopting out and escorting 10 other cat rescues the past 3 years. She is flying all the way from Miami to Casablanca (Morocco) to pick up Maggie on September 3, taking her to her family in Belgrade (Serbia) by September 5. And on the way back to Miami, she'll come back to Casablanca to carry another one of our rescues to their adopter. Four flights in total, about $2,000, and they have to be booked this coming week before summer prices climb even higher. After almost four years in a cage at the clinic, Maggie will finally have a home and the life she's been waiting for.
Maggie's journey is also the start of something we've been building toward for a long time: flying our cats, one by one, to the serious adopters waiting for them abroad.
Now the rest of the update, including a part I haven't shared until now because I didn't want to worry anyone.
When we first moved into the new house, I kept some windows overlooking the garden slightly open so air could flow. By day 4, the cats had pushed them open, and a few got out into the garden. I got them all back, so I closed the electric curtains and left the windows open behind them for airflow. In every place we had lived before, curtain switches only move while you keep your finger pressed on them. In this house, one touch sends the curtain all the way up on its own unless you press a second time to stop it. During the night, one of the cats touched the switch. The curtain opened fully, the windows behind it were open, and by early morning most of the cats were outside. It took about a full day to bring them back. One came back on her own two weeks later, and we were able to recover another from a neighbor's house. Three are still missing today. I still look for them and ask around the neighborhood.
Since that day, the windows stay closed. And with the windows closed in a Moroccan heatwave, the house gets hot and the air gets heavy.
After the escape, my plan was to start on the garden and the catio right away, so the cats could go outside safely. Then something happened that forced me to put it on hold.
I found a lot of blood on the floor two days in a row in different spots. With over 100 cats in that house and not one of them showing symptoms, there was no way to know who was sick, so I called a camera company, and within 5 days we had 32 cameras monitoring all cats' areas. We found the cat in time, and she was treated before it got worse. Between the cameras, the rescues at the vet, the emergencies, and the first batch of recovery cages paid for, the money set aside for the garden was gone and the cats are still kept inside.
Here is what's left to make the house safe:
The garden needs to be cleared and rebuilt first, about $2,700. It's mostly weeds, so it needs clearing, drip irrigation, and automatic watering. Then the catio, a secure outdoor enclosure gets built on top of it, plus small catios connected to the windows so the cats have outdoor space to breathe even when the big one is closed. After what happened with the escape, this is the only way the cats will ever go outside again safely with no way out.
Air conditioning and air purifiers. I first looked at installing a built-in central system for the whole house but in Morocco the options are limited, it costs far more so I chose standalone units instead, the quiet kind that cool the room without blowing air directly at the cats to avoid them getting sick (Wind Free models). The house has three floors, so we need 8 units, at about $1,100 each, $8,800 in total. We also need 16 air purifiers to keep the air clean with this many cats indoors and the windows sealed: 4 smaller ones at about $200 each, and 12 larger ones at about $370 each, around $5,200 in total.
The recovery cages: cats who need specific medication or a specific diet have to be separated for short stays so nothing spreads and treatment actually works. These cages also save us real money because those cats can be treated at home instead of boarding at the vet. We need 18. I could only afford half: the first 9 cost $2,800, already paid, arriving within days. The other 9 are another $2,800.
Altogether, that's $2,000 for Maggie's flights, plus about $19,800 to finish the house: about $21,800 in total, on top of the weekly vet bills, the necessities like food and liters and the monthly rent that always come first.
As of now, we raised $985.
If you'd like to support us reach this goal, click here to donate.
Once this is done, everything changes at once. Maggie will be home. The cats go outside for the first time since the move. New rescues get a proper quarantine room. And the guest rooms will finally be ready for the adopters and volunteers who have been waiting to visit us so more cats get adopted. And just like I did when you helped secure the home, I'll send you a video of both Maggie when she'll travel and get to her new home and also of the cats outside including everything you contributed toward.
I know I asked for your help just two months ago and I wouldn't write this if it could wait. I'm asking for your help to close this gap, starting with Maggie's flights which must be booked this coming week, and the air conditioning before the August heat peaks. Any amount helps, and as always, I'll update you here as we get closer to the goal, so you can see exactly what your donations did.
Some of you received an email yesterday from yassine@yh.theyasshouse.com and may have wondered if it was really me. It was. I created that personal address as social media accounts can be restricted or lost at any moment, God forbid, which is currently the only bridge between the cats and the people who keep them alive. Email is the one connection no platform can take away. If you'd like to keep hearing from me, add yassine@yh.theyasshouse.com to your contacts, so my emails never end up in spam or promotions where I'm sending rescue stories and updates.
Thank you for being here and for everything you've already done for these cats.
If you'd like to help, you can donate here.
Yassine
This isn’t the update I wanted to write, unfortunately the sweet cat found abandoned at the vet’s door didn’t make it. She was supposed to have her amputation today, but her temperature was still too low for surgery. The vet said it was septicemia, the leg infection had spread into her bloodstream.
When the vet where she was dropped at saw the camera video, she was dropped by 10pm the night before I found her. In other words, she was out there in the cold for 13 hours.
When she was admitted at the vet clinic yesterday, she was accepting food and water and was on an IV for the dehydration, I was so hopeful she was going to make it through. Sometimes it goes the other way no matter what anyone does.
If you'd like to see more, click here to watch the video of what we briefly did for her yesterday once she got to the clinic.
I want to thank anyone who stepped in to help her get admitted and cover her care. Because of you, she spent her last days warm, treated, and cared for instead of dying alone on the street 🙏
I truly wanted to make your day by sharing a positive update, but it’s beyond me…I’m sorry
Rest in Peace little angel ❤️🕊️
Hello everyone,
I'm sorry to write again so soon after yesterday's Siamese positive rescue story, but this couldn't wait.
Three hours ago I went to the vet for two of my cats' daily treatment, and outside I found a cat who had been dropped by the vet's door before he opened up, abandoned over a towel with food and water and a crushed leg.
It's Sunday, so I had to rush him to an emergency vet. Without immediate care he wouldn't have made it through the day. I managed to get him there, he's stable.
If you're able to help with anything toward his emergency bill and surgery, it would mean a great deal.
I've kept the video out of this email because it's hard to look at for some people. If you want to see the full footage, it's here, but please only watch if you feel up to it.
I'll post an update tomorrow on how he's doing.
Thank you,
Yassine
Hello everyone,
I wanted to share a good one with you.
This is Linus. I found him abandoned on a piece of cardboard in the cold and the rain, dehydrated and in bad shape with hypothermia and a serious respiratory infection.
He spent a month and a half at the vet fighting his way back. Today he's safe, healthy, and thriving.
You can see his transformation here.
This is what your support makes possible.
Thank you for saving Linus' life.
Sincerely,
Yassine
Hello,
I wanted to share an update on one of our cat rescues, Minnie.She was losing weight fast and her urine was much darker than normal so I thought it was probably a liver issue. I took her straight to the vet clinic this morning for bloodwork and an X-ray.
The X-ray showed fluid in her abdomen. Severe anemia, platelets dangerously low. The diagnosis is FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) which is a severe, progressive, and historically fatal viral disease of cats caused by a mutated form of the common feline coronavirus.
Minnie started her 84-day FIP injection protocol today and she'll be staying at the vet clinic for the next three months to be closely monitored.
I'll keep you updated on how she's doing.
Have a Wonderful Day,
Yassine
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!