Caught in a gear. This is the feeling that dominates when Françoise Delage tells her personal story, what she has experienced for three years. For three unpaid monthly payments on her mortgage and a series of adverse circumstances, the administrative and judicial machinery was set in motion, crushing her relentlessly.
Auction
Today Françoise Delage is losing her house. “It will be auctioned on October 11 in Saintes,” confirms the 60-year-old. For a debt of 2,500 euros, his bank demands his entire property loan, i.e. 100,000 euros. Amount she cannot pay. She is asking for help from anyone who can help her, but above all she is appealing for donations to save her cats. About 120 felines that she welcomes into her home, in what she calls the sanctuary, which is also the headquarters of the Larmes de chats association, which she created in 2019 and of which she has been president since. “We take care of more than a hundred cats, including about forty kittens that people abandon without warning, sometimes in a box left on the wall or near the garden. It’s too much, we shouldn’t have so many kittens […] Cats have costs, currently around 1,500 euros per month. You have to feed them, pay the vets. We have less and less help, donations are not increasing in contrast to the number of cats, and there are few grants from the surrounding communities.”
Originally from Blayais, Françoise Delage moved to Cercoux nine years ago to live in Charente-Maritime, where her husband worked. In 2016, the couple bought a modest house surrounded by a large plot of around 1,500 m² and a large building where there were already many abandoned cats. The idea to create the Larmes de chats association was born and quickly became “a sanctuary of peace for abandoned, homeless or abused cats until the end of their days”, as its members and supporters describe it.
Cats have costs, currently around 1,500 euros per month
“I will continue to fight”
But today, although the association continues to exist and carry out its missions, the chairman’s personal difficulties raise fears of consequences for the balance of the structure and for the future of its residents.
But despite these serious difficulties, which inevitably push her into fatigue and depression, Françoise Delage cannot bring herself to give up her cats. They would then be handed over to the saturated SPA (Society for the Protection of Animals), which already has several thousand cats for adoption.
So regardless of what happens in the coming days or weeks, she assures us: “I will find homes that can accommodate the association’s cats, and I will continue to fight to the end! »
To support the association, you can contact 06 74 55 04 02 or Leurdechats@outlook.fr or the Facebook page, or go to the online platforms Leetchi, Helloasso and Teaming.
Françoise Delage currently welcomes 120 cats into her home.
SL
