Shannon Ellis

Well, we’ve almost made it to twelve weeks, and it still feels like it happened yesterday while time has also moved on us. Now that they’ve determined for double sure we’re not arsonists, the house has been gutted and they are doing demo. Most of the frame looks great, it’s interesting the parts of the frame that aren’t. Once they get it down to the frame completely, they’ll determine what has to be replaced frame wise and then it all has to be treated for mold. Then things will move along to the rebuild. To be 100% honest, we have 0% of excitement for the rebuild. Just being transparent because every day someone says “well it has to be exciting to rebuild and change things if you want” We’re not. We liked our home We loved our animals We weren’t unhappy and weren’t looking to change it. Not being negative - just being transparent. Our excitement level is 0 to rebuild. But we still have to pay the mortgage, and we worked hard to earn it, so here we go. We can’t go through time without thanking everyone again. The gratitude that we have keeps us going through everyday, no joke there. Especially now, every time we cook a meal, lay our heads down or get dressed; it is a constant reminder of someone that gave that to us. 12 weeks ago we lost it all and walked away with - quite literally - only the clothes we were wearing, nothing else. It is from the help of all of you that we were able to eat, buy clothing and move from the hotel to this apartment and have the necessities. Every day in this timeline is so crazy for everyone. There is just so very much going on in the world, and it’s heavy. But you pulled together, despite all the heaviness, to stop and help us. Thank you, thank you so much. Throwing in some pictures from the fire and what the house looks like now so you can see the progress….. For those that keep asking There is still an Amazon registry our friend Angela Kelly created. We’ll get it updated with winter stuff - that’s mostly what we need now…

You guys …. Thank you… you have all shown up so much these past 8 weeks. We wanted to the opportunity to say thank you so much Several of you drove hours to get us set up in the apartment, bringing all sorts of things from sheets, towels, Tupperware, someone even came bearing essential groceries! A million thank yous aren’t enough we are very grateful We are settled into the apartment thanks to all of you! The house - after the “arson investigation” is back on track and being demo’d this week. Sledgehammer anyone?! We’ve gotten some beautiful gift/tributes to Dakota, Beth and Kayce and for that we are touched. We’ve even had a tattoo artist in Annapolis reach out that wants to help work on a tribute to them, which was touching and beautiful, and something to look forward to. We have a great new dog trainer that is making leaps and bounds with Bo when we leave, he’s been doing much better about being left and calming himself. As anyone cleans out for the winter - if you have winter stuff laying around, or if you upgrade your winter stuff like we did last year (ha ha jokes on us) that’s what we’ll be looking at next. We just bought new winter coats and snow boots last year and had donated our old stuff so thinking maybe someone is doing the same? There is still the gofundme my sisters started- which after feeding us during the hotel stay, will now go towards when we move back in, replacing furniture and beds, items like that we need to wait on that we’ll be short on insurance with. There is the Amazon registry that my friend Angela Kelly created, we can update it tonight with things we have gotten and things still needed. Also - honest question that has kept us up at night. We want to ask objectively for anyone that might understand so we can try to make peace with this. When the fire fighters got Dakota out of the house, EMS immediately began CPR. They said she still had a pulse…. And they asked permission to be allowed to transport her via ambulance to the animal hospital. They got permission and began transport…. And the animal hospital turned her away before they got there, so EMS had to let her go and bring her back to us. We do not want to bad mouth the animal hospital, it won’t get us anywhere. But we do lay awake at night trying to understand, and maybe someone knows why they would’ve refused her? Asking to find help us find peace, not to stir up negativity…. Last, we know everyone here is going through something. Please know we are here for you too, we love you and we’re here to help. Thank you.