Please help me save my mom's cat sanctuary.

16 years ago, my mom, I, and another person moved into a house in Arizona. After losing our home in Arkansas due to foreclosure, this house was a blessing. It was bought for dirt cheap on auction. There were no floors, the backyard was filled with broken glass and used needles. But it was ours. It was won in the auction with help from my grandmother. My mom turned it into a home for us.

Then the cats came.

Truthfully, the cats were there before us. It just took a few weeks before my mom noticed them. Then for the next sixteen years she spent all her time fixing the house and saving the cats that came into our yard. These cats were abandoned from nearby apartments, rental home evictions, or born on the streets. My mom learned about TNR and started doing it all on her own, with her own money. Eventually I joined in to help her save the cats.

The last 18 months have been the hardest months of our lives. In October 2025 our home was hit by the microburst. In May, a strain of panleuk ran through the cats and claimed the lives of two adults males we loved dearly. In June, my mom suffered a widow maker (heart attack) while she was fixing a plate of food for the cats. The surgeon told me that if she had waited 30 minutes more to be seen she would not have made it. But my mom is strong. Barely two weeks later, she was back up and passing out cat food. She kept fighting for the well-being of our beloved cats.

Now we've been hit with the biggest challenge yet.

When my mom won this home on auction she put the other person on the deed as co-owner. This person left us in August and hired a lawyer to force a sale of our home and to have all the cats evicted immediately.

Currently, my mom and I care for roughly 80 cats. Most of the cats have been with us since the beginning. They are geriatric, chronically ill with stomatitis or FIV, or are semi feral. These aren't cats that are adoptable. At a time when shelters are full and no rescue can spare time or space for cats like them, they will face euthanasia. And after 16 years, these cats are our everything. They are our family. We cannot handle even the thought of losing them, of them being taken from the only place and people they've ever known.

The fear of losing our home again, with the loss of cats was too much for me to handle and I broke down crying in the catio that was built specifically for Ziggy and his family of tabbies. The generosity of strangers who saw my TikTok bought us hope. With those donations, we were able to hire a lawyer who is fighting to buy us time and an equal portion of the home. Hundreds of people left comments, telling us to make a gofundme to specifically to save the home. So now I have.

After weeks of speaking to lawyers, realtors, and lenders... we are scared. My mom is on social security. Getting a loan or reverse mortgage to buyout the other person is not looking like an option. The cost of buying a new home and transferring our cats there is overwhelming, both financially and physically. If we have no choice but to move, our focus is on getting a space for the cats to be safe and comfortable. Hopefully finding land and a large building akin to how Furball Sanctuary is set up. But for the well-being of these cats, we aren't giving up.

Please, for the sake of 80 cats, cats who have already been failed by humans once before, consider donating so we can secure their future.

Your donations will go towards either buying out the other person or buying a home so we can continue to take care of these cats. Time is precious, we only have 90 days at most to save our home or find a new one. I know times are hard for everyone, so if you can't donate please share or like.

Thank you for reading and caring,

Nikki