To celebrate this glorious holiday season, a true story that illustrates the indomitable spirit and incredible generosity of "Boxer People" everywhere...Enjoy!

The Osborn Saga

By Rachel Osborn

Rescue Boxers are Adoptable Love
Rachel, Wayne & Sidney Osborn & Prissey, Nameless & Sally
e-mail: ghost@erinet.com
Boxer-Rescue-L Owner/Admin.;
American Boxer Rescue Assoc, Secretary
Boxer Rescue: Dayton, OH & Area - http://members.xoom.com/BoxerRsq/
Osborn’s Funny Farm - http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/9507/
Official Boxer Mailing List Home Pages - http://www.erinet.com/ghost/

Chapter 1 - First Things First...Huge Thanks!!!

Believe it or not, this is a story I have sort of put off writing as I am at a loss for words, proper words. The Internet community has humbled us, as well as supported us in so many ways, and helped to restore our faith in humanity, which takes a licking doing rescue work.

First off, my entire family wishes to express loving gratitude for all the prayers, moral support, and gifts of both usable items and money. The special account that was set up by Brian Lyons for the Boxer people to donate to us through has grown astonishingly! Unfortunately this bank did not keep a record of who donated so I cannot thank each of you personally that donated directly to the account. We dearly wish that we could do this. The checks that others have sent to us directly have gone into the account also.

I can't remember what I have told since the fire, but one thing that we did manage to salvage and clean enough for it to work, is my computer. Actually, the firemen tried their best and pulled the computers to a bedroom away from the main part of the fire as the dining room roof was falling in, burning, on top of my computer desk/hutch, which they took an ax to and threw out the windows. Delma Robinson's husband, Bill should be credited with this master of workmanship on getting it to be operational. However, all the "experts" have told me that it WILL die, most likely in less than a year, and that I might not have any warning at all. My sound system hasn't worked at all since the fire so I don't get the "Uh-Ohs" from ICQ or any of the other neat sounds.

There is a reason for telling you specifically about the prognosis for my computer. <G> Your generosity has amounted to almost enough to buy my NEW computer!!!!! It will be custom built, as was this one, just a year ago. Much cheaper to have one built than to buy off the shelf and you get a better system on top of it all. We are already shopping and will be ordering the new one within next few weeks!

Nancy Knarr became the Queen of Laundry, trying all sorts of remedies to rid some of our clothing of the horrible smell. Unfortunately, there isn't any true success to report there. Nancy even asked firemen what they use on their clothes. Maybe their noses don't work right after being in so many fires, but our clothes, the majority of them anyway, still have that odor and are unusable.

And, just as important and appreciated by all of us have been the gifts of clothing, bedding, cookware, china, and other household items. AND, oh my gracious - you guys have spoiled our three Boxers to death! Now anytime the mailman comes or the UPS truck pulls up out front our Boxers think THEY are getting another package! They all three sit intently watching as we open any package that comes into this house, just knowing it is for them, and it is sort of funny to watch them if there is nothing in the box for them.

These three Boxers now have so many toys there is not room on the floor for all to be down at once by any means. They each have new stainless steel food bowls, plenty of shampoo, lots of treats, new collars and leashes, and other items of joy and necessity. AND, Prissey now has her own big pillow bed in a pretty green and gray check that says "This Bed Belongs to Prissey." Nameless has a bright red one and Sally has a bright green one trimmed in red sporting their names also. Whoever sent these presents to the babies chose to remain anonymous, other than to include a card that simply said "From a BML friend." Whoever you are, the three Funny Farm Boxers and their humans thank you from the bottom of our hearts with loads of hugs and slurps!

The e-mails that so many have sent, and continue to send, asking how each of us are doing, checking up on the progress of our insurance fight, and asking about my hip also, have truly meant the world to us. While material and monetary gifts have been so generous, the moral support that we have all received from the so, so many e-mails to us have held us, hugged us, and in many ways saved our sanity. The love and caring expressed in each of these has meant the world!

Also, thanks for spreading the word to other lists, even non-Boxer ones. We have received gifts for our Boxer Rescue efforts also from other rescue folks and also some for us personally. More to come but please be assured that each and everyone of you are cherished!

Chapter 2 - The Gory Details

Many have asked about our van, about my hip, details of the fire, and how the fight with the homeowner's insurance for the house fire is going. For those who do not know, on August 8 I had the first wreck of my life as a driver. Not my fault, I wasn't ticketed, but still Sidney, our 14 year old son, and I were in a wreck. This happened in Florence, KY while I was helping with a SharPei CUR run. Nobody, including the two rescues, was injured, just my poor van!

Then on August 13, while going out to get in the car to go pick up my husband, Wayne, from work at about 10:15 at night I stepped off the sidewalk with my right foot onto an uneven area of ground. Just like a tree felled by a woodsman, I fell to the left, onto my left side and hip. Knew immediately my hip was broken and really thought my knee was also. The hip took 3 pins to repair, but at least it was a clean break. The knee they tell me only received lots of soft tissue damage, but it is still giving me fits at times. The hip is doing great though. I received so many beautiful Get Well and friendship cards, many with pictures of Boxers on them. Those were all so precious to me, and enjoyed by my entire family and all of my friends.

Those were all lost, along with literally everything we owned, including our home, on August 31. I woke at 3:45 AM to the smoke detector going off, the house full of smoke and something exploding. The firemen told me later what I had heard was inflated tires in the garage exploding from the high temperatures built up in them. The fire had started behind a refrigerator in our garage, which was under our living room, dining room and kitchen, as part of our walk out/drive out basement to our ranch home.

Wayne went back in to get our other two Boxers, and a rescue who had been with us a mere 12 hours, out of the house. Prissey came running out as Wayne went in the front door. Nameless was with me, stuck like glue already. Prissey would not come to me or Sidney though. She took off behind the neighbor's house across the street. Sally had been crated in our bedroom which was directly across from the front door. As soon as she saw the flames which were shooting out of the garage doors about 20 feet out and 25 feet ABOVE the roof line two stories up, she balked and refused to budge, pedaling backwards. Wayne says he doesn't know how he did it, but he reached down with just his right hand, opened the storm door and threw Sally out and down the ramp he had built for me to use due to my hip. Sally ran right to Sidney and me, jumping around and telling all of the neighbors hello! The rescue girl, when Wayne released her and opened the door, took off too into the woods behind the houses across the street.

Everyone, especially us, was worried about Prissey and the rescue. Wayne and many neighbors went out searching for the two girls, but nothing. I finally asked a fireman to call the Animal Control and the Humane Society and explain it was an emergency and that these two girls were not just strays. While our street is fairly secluded, and a dead end street, there are two very large streets real close to us, especially for two scared running Boxers.

The rescue girl was found around 9:30 by the Humane Society smack dab in the middle of one of those very busy streets I mentioned above, actually about a mile from our house. She was directly in front of a large pet store. When we heard this we got our first, and last for a long time, laugh. Only thing I could think to say when told was "I guess she was going there because she was hungry!"

Wayne, Sidney and I were at the hospital by the time either of the girls was found. We just couldn’t believe that everything we had worked for all of our lives, everything that we had collected, all the things people had given us, all the things we had made over the years,

everything - our HOME, was going up in flames! Wayne physically went into shock. His blood pressure kept going higher and higher, and he doesn’t normally have a blood pressure problem. Both the paramedics and I were real worried about him. He would zone out, and the only time he would regain any amount of consciousness was when I would break down and start crying. Then he would come to and worry about me. The minute I assured him I was okay and quit crying he would go away again. We tried to get him to go to the hospital, but he would not go without me. I wanted to stay with our home. I don't know, I felt like one of us should be there with it. But Wayne would not go without me, so I finally agreed to go too just to get him there. I knew I had to get my hip checked but really wanted to wait till later in the day. Sidney of course went with us just to be with us, his security.

At some point, not long after we were out of the house, I asked our neighbor, Jack Bennett, the one who called the fire department and was coming to get us out at any cost, to let me borrow his cell phone. Sidney then handed me the handset to our cordless phone and told me I could use it. It had not occurred to him there was no power in the house and the phone wouldn't work, so he had grabbed it as he ran by it on his way out the door. That and his Game Boy, which was on his bedside table, escaped unharmed!

The phone call I made was to Nancy's and my dear friend, and my partner in Boxer Rescue, Delma Robinson. She and her husband arrived just as they were putting us in the ambulance to go to the Emergency Room. Wasn't too awful long after we got to the hospital that Delma showed up, along with the Red Cross. What a true angel, Delma is. She drove us around all day to get something to wear, to the Red Cross office, back to our demolished home, and finally that evening we went to her and Bill's home with our three Boxers to spend almost two weeks before the insurance company got us in the relocation rental we are now in.

 Chapter 3 - The Insurance Fight!

We all pay insurance to protect us and to help us out in times of crisis. Right? But boy oh boy, they don't just rush out and take care of everything and do what you have paid them for so many years! Right after the fire, when Nancy was writing and giving you updates on all, many of you wrote to her, and then to me, on ways to deal with the insurance hassles we were facing. Many thanks for all the great advice.

The Insurance Adjuster came out the day of the fire, told us that our house should be totaled with no problems from the insurance company, and that we would get full coverage for our contents. He also told us we would hear from the Relocation people by noon the following day. WRONG! On all counts!

The fire was early Monday morning. Tuesday came and went with no word from the Relocation people who were supposed to find a rental for us while we were out of our home. I phoned the Adjuster that evening, long distance mind you, and left a message that we had not heard anything yet. No return call. This was repeated twice on Wednesday, and three times on Thursday. The last time on Thursday I left a rather veiled threat, nothing specific, but let it be known I was fixing to go over his head and make a lot of noise. One thing we were thinking of doing was getting hold of a local TV channel which has a forum called Turn to 2, and they would love to have blown an insurance company away for leaving us twisting in the wind so to speak.

First thing Friday morning we got a call from the Relocation people, and immediately after from the Adjuster. The only demands we placed on the Relocators were that we needed a ranch house (ours was a ranch and I had a broken hip, thus couldn't climb steps to a bedroom) and that the landlord would allow our three Boxers. The Insurance Agent kept insisting that they would pay for our dogs to be kenneled! Like H___ our three "babies" would be kenneled! They had lost their home, too. They were also emotionally affected, obviously so. Prissey had injured eyes and throat and was requiring vet care, which I am still not sure the insurance company is going to pay for, by the way.

They would call and say they hadn't found anything yet. Then they offered us one house I couldn't even get into due to the steps, land and floor plan. I was still using a wheelchair some and walker the rest of the time. We can't prove it, but we truly believe they were trying for the farthest from OUR home as possible in their looking for us a place to stay. Also don't think they were hurrying as they figured they had a free ride as we were staying with friends, rather than in a motel.

Then finally on Friday, almost two weeks later, we told them we were moving into a motel, a Residency Inn, and gave them excuses as to why we couldn't stay with our friends any longer. Delma was worried to death about us going out on our own. We did leave Sally with her for a few days as we knew Sally would raise all sorts of noises if we left her crated in a motel room where she would hear people coming and going around her all the time.

They got busy finding us a place. It is so small we don't even have room to put up a Christmas tree! We have a good many reservations about accepting it. The main one is that it is so far from our property, Sidney's school, our church, and so on. We moved into this house 2 weeks and 2 days after the fire.

Now all of a sudden they don't want to total the house. They just want to come in and only replace wallboard where it actually burned. They want to just replace the roof that burned. They want to just replace the garage door, which was GONE! The adjuster had already gone through with us on the first day and told us this and that were not safe to use, but then all of a sudden it was safe????? They graciously agreed to paint over the wallboard that had been soaked with water and was black with smoke! No way were we going to agree to this. The State Insurance Commissioner's Office was of no help. Again, we started making veiled threats of fighting tooth and nail. It appeared they had hoped we were dumb bunnies who would roll over and play dead and be oh so grateful for anything they did for us.

Appears the adjuster was smart enough to know the insurance company was not going to win. He told us of companies called Public Adjusters, that are certified by the State, and that work for you, the victim, not the insurance company. He gave us the name of one man who did this work, but did not know which company he worked for. We of course had never heard of these companies before. Out comes the Yellow Pages, and we start making calls. One company we called, who was not the right type of adjusters, knew of the same man we had been referred to, but again didn't know how to contact him. We started getting the right companies, and listening to all of their spiels. We decided on one. Lo and behold, it was the company that the man who we had been looking for worked for. We did not know this until two days after we signed a contract with the company though.

These Public Adjuster companies work for you. They cannot show any favoritism towards the insurance company or they lose their license. For a percentage of all you recover from the insurance company for you, for rebuilding, for contents (which nobody ever has enough insurance coverage on), for relocation and everything else, they do everything for you. They come in and do a COMPLETE inventory of all your belongings. This they list out, list the price you paid for it, its age, replacement cost, and figure the depreciation the insurance company demands. If the item is not in their database they go out and find out how much it cost. They go over this complete listing with you so you can correct any mistakes. Oh yes, they made mistakes. For instance we only used Dexter Russell and other professional quality knives in our kitchen. LOL They listed them as plastic handled with a 14" chef's knife costing $6.00! They listed a lot of Sidney's (our 14 year old son) belongings as being 8 to 12 years old. My comment on those was, come on people, he is a growing kid. How many 14 year olds can wear a coat they had six years ago? How many 14 year olds read books they have had for 10 years?

The insurance company had already sent in an inspector and a contractor. Guess what? They didn't even let us know these people were coming, and technically they broke into our boarded up house! Their inspector said the fire didn't even start where it obviously did, where the fire marshall said it started, where every person who saw the house said it started. Their contractor said the house could be repaired for about half of the total value for it. Heck, there were things burned so badly, or burned completely, that they didn't even include in their estimate because they didn't talk to us to even know they were there! There was evidence of these things being there before, if and only if you knew what you were looking for.

The Public Adjusters brought in their independent inspector and contractors who pointed out many things that the County Building Inspector would not allow to be "repaired" in the way the insurance company inspector and contractor had claimed could be done. Thank heaven we had been smart and made sure we had replacement value insurance on our house! It was finally agreed that the house would be torn down except for the studding of the bedrooms and the part of the basement just below them, but the foundation would remain. Would have loved to been a bug in the phone lines between the insurance company and the public adjuster during all the negotiations!

We knew the foundation was going to have to be replaced, and so did the Public Adjuster people and the contractor who had come in, and that we subsequently hired. But we said okay, we'll sand blast that clean and let it go. Not to be! As soon as the sand blaster people showed up and started cleaning, all these big holes and cracks appeared from where the heat had been so intense in the garage. In walks the County Building Inspector, who tells our contractor to have the Insurance Adjuster call him ASAP because he wants that floor, and the foundation under it replaced! As soon as our contractor called the Insurance Adjuster it was a done deal, no inspector even had to be called, other than by our contractor and the Public Adjuster to let him know it was going to be! That was two weeks ago. That same day they started jack hammering out that floor and foundation. The next Monday the new foundation was poured, then the flooring for the garage area. As of today, all interior studding is done. The entire roof has been trussed, sheeted and black papered. The exterior walls have got plywood up. Two of our new doors are already in place. When we left there this afternoon they were busy putting on the new vinyl siding and fussing because the building supply place had not got the new garage door to them yet.

I doubt there is one among us who has ever bought a preexisting home and not made comments about how you wish this was different, or if you'd built this house you would have done this or that differently. Well, we are getting to make almost all of those changes now! Now mind you, this is NOT the way Wayne and I ever wanted to do it, but we had always talked about building our own home someday. It is neat, but boy does it keep us busy and on the go. Drawing up floor plans, revising them, talking to furnace/ac people, picking out siding, roofing, cabinets, carpet, colors, windows, this and that. If anyone has ever built their own home they for sure know what I mean.

Every day we feel like little children running to see how many more presents are under the Christmas tree today. We can't wait to go see how much more they got done to the house since we were there the day before. We will be going to my Mom's in NC next Tuesday evening, November 24 and not return till Sunday, November 29 to celebrate Thanksgiving with Family and Friends. We both know that the first couple of days we will be okay, but then those last few, and on the trip home, we will be like expectant fathers used to be when they were forced to pace in the waiting room while their wife was hidden away having their baby. I don't care if it is midnight when we get back to Dayton, the first place we will go, even though where we are staying will have to be passed to get to it, is to OUR NEW HOME just to see what all they accomplished while we were gone!

As I told Ann Stone the other night in an e-mail, pretty soon we will have a brand new house, with hardly anything in it. Lots of room for everyone to come visit for sure. Where we used to have lots of extra bed space, now we just say bring your air mattresses and sleeping bags and come on to visit anytime!

We are planning a big, or several big I guess really, Open House parties when we get moved in. This is projected for early March. Please pray that the winter weather does not get so severe that it delays this. However, everyone of you are invited to come to one or all of the parties! Believe me, we will be reminding you of this invitation as we get closer to knowing exact date of move in! So start making your plans now!

Oh, forgot to mention, one week to the day after the fire we received notice by mail that our insurance was canceled and not renewable. Ever try to find home owner's insurance when there is no home? Boy, oh boy, what a trip! We did figure out finally that we needed liability insurance only, until construction begun. Once things were settled with the insurance company and they started demolishing the house we were able to get a new home owner's policy with a builder's risk rider attached!

Someone needs to write a book that can be handed out to people when their home burns down.

We have learned so much through this experience that nobody should ever have to learn. There was nobody to tell us what to do. Nobody suggested that we call the power company and have the gas cut off, or the water company to have that cut off. For sure nobody would have told us about the Public Adjusters, who by the way, definitely earned their cut of our benefits. Lastly I want to express again my entire family's deep and very sincere thanks to all of you for helping us keep our sanity, which gave us the strength to keep on keeping on and to fight for what was due us! The moral, financial and material gifts have all been so great and overwhelming.

God bless each and every one of you and your entire family, our beloved Internet Family!