A fire and struggle for survival

Kat & Tim in Yellowstone. The most beautiful place on earth.



Hello there! We are Kat and Tim, dedicated animal lovers and owners of The Furry Nation pet supply store.  After having suffered major financial losses because of big banking and losing our home to a devastating fire, we began this campaign to ask the community to help us keep our business, our beloved staff and our dream alive.  Your help truly gaves us hope and helps us to spend love and hope to others.

Our Story
Our pet supply store, The Furry Nation opened its doors in March 2009 in Lakewood, OH. We offered services, helping customers' beloved furry friends improve their quality of life through proper nutrition, dog training, grooming and lots of deep and unconditional love. We also had the joy using The Furry Nation platform to help local rescues find homes for hundreds of pets in need by offering our grooming services for free, assisting in vet bills, sponsoring adoption events including a our own Spring Adoption Fair and giving away hundreds of gift baskets to help fundraise for these rescues.


The Downfall
Our business, as with all small businesses, struggled to grow. Yet, with love and support of the community so strong we fought to keep The Furry Nation open.  We found an investor.  Unfortunately our investor’s business went into bankruptcy just a month after we had opened our second store in July 2014. We took out high interest loans and constantly ran back and forth between the stores trying to keep everything running smoothly with few employees.  
Just four days before Christmas (and the day I went to get my employee bonuses) Fifth Third froze our accounts because of the investor's bankruptcy holding us hostage from over $30,000 in income.  After two months of fighting, we were able to finally get our money back but the damage was already done.  Our loans were in default, rents weren't paid and creditors were attacking us. We began a lawsuit against Fifth Third but that took well over a year to settle.   The debt that insued as we struggled to maintain the stores over that 17 month period would end up totaling over $80,000 in interest charges, loan defaults, lawyer fees and more.  We even had to move our Lakewood store because the investor owned our building and the receivership of his assets kicked us out because we were behind on rent which they had caused.

Still we fought.  We maintain positivity in our store even though I had to stop giving free charity baskets, and services to rescues.  I even had to stop my Spring Adoption Fair, which I loved so much and helped adopt out over a dozen pets each year.  We struggled but were also honored to be able to struggle and fight.  We felt strength knowing we could do this.  At home we continued to restore our beautiful Victorian I had bought in 2010 in the up and coming Detroit Shoreway area.  Tim and I (ok mostly Tim) worked long hours repairing the old beautiful Victorian house.  We had redone the roof.  Replaced every window.  Replaced the entire Hvac system.  Restored the antique stone floor garage and started to strip and repaint the exterior.  In October 2015 we came home late Sunday night from the store to fire trucks blocking the whole street. Our home had a fire.  All floors from the basement to the attic were burnt and the home had to be condemned.  Both my family's and Tim's family heirlooms were in this home.  All of our possessions were gone.  We lost everything.

Looking back at that date, I can now see it was a miracle that none of us or our dogs were in the house when the fire broke out.  Our bedroom was probably inescapable.





 
A Family That Needs Your Support

Today with all that has happened we still believe in our dream.  Our store, closed, but our family survives. We hold to our love and hope for the future.  Our family is still living in limbo.  We now live in our motorhome until we can get back to solid ground.  We loved our stores and community however we now must move on a get a job elsewhere.  We want to support our community again not be the ones asking for support.

How You Can Help

There are many ways you can show your support for family, love, hope and perserverance:

Make a pledge today and help us get back on our feet.

Use your social media to help spread the word to the entire community
And remember: Every donation counts, no matter how big or small. Please share our story and help us reach more people! Together we can make it!