MAURERTOWN — Within minutes their lives were forever changed.
Brad Cook woke to the smell of smoke in the early morning hours of June 2. Thinking that an electrical outlet was on fire, he and his wife, Jessica Cook, unplugged everything in their bedroom and Brad went downstairs to investigate.
He found the front porch — located directly beneath their bedroom — fully engulfed in flames.
“I yelled up and told her to call 911. I moved the dogs to the back of the house,” Brad recalled recently at the scene of their burnt-out home on Tea Berry Road in Maurertown. “By the time I tried to go back upstairs, there was smoke and soot and all the lights were out. I couldn’t see anything. I had no idea where she was.”
Jessica was still upstairs, staying low to the ground, recalling fire safety lessons from the 1980s that taught her to “stop, drop and roll.”
Through the darkness and smoke, the couple struggled to find one another.
Eventually, Brad climbed out of a back window and made his way around the house to where Jessica was calling out. He caught her as she fell from a small second-story window toward the back of their home.
The fire, which they later learned was started by a surge protector arcing out on the front porch, destroyed their home and, more importantly to the couple, claimed the lives of six beloved dogs.
“That’s been the hardest part of all this,” Jessica said as she recalled the challenges of the past month. “We love them. They were our companions.”
Married since 2008, the Cooks have been together for 20 years. They had been living in their 1950 Sears Craftsman built from a kit for eight years.
“We love this house. We still love this house. The fire marshal said had this house been 20 years newer or we’d waited 10 minutes longer, we wouldn’t be here,” Jessica Cook said, adding that the home’s electrical system had been updated and the surge protector where the fire started didn’t have anything plugged into it. “What we now understand and what I want people to hear from this is even with nothing plugged in, a surge protector can still arc. That’s what happened.”
In their case, their home served as home base for their real estate and property management businesses and their nonprofit dog rescue. The Cooks started Margaret’s Saving Grace Bully Rescue in 2019. The rescue has saved 1,800 dogs since then, with about 800 passing through their Maurertown home.
“We had been assisting another rescue. We supported them with donations and transports. We got a call that they were being investigated by the FBI,” Jessica said, noting that after the couple helped to get the Hampshire County, West Virginia, rescue closed, their attorney suggested that they start a rescue of their own. “We never intended it to get this big. I mean, this rescue is huge. We have rescued dogs from all over this country.”
The couple focused on pit bull rescue for a couple of reasons.
They learned firsthand how sweet the dogs can be when their daughter brought home Malakai. “He broke our pit bull stigma. Before then, we felt like everyone else did,” Jessica said. “We were like, ‘A pit bull? You’re not bringing a pit bull into our house.’ But then once we had him, we were like ‘Oh my God, this dog is the best.’ I’ve had golden retrievers, labs, German shepherds and I was like, ‘This is the goofiest, happiest dog I’ve ever had.’ They’re great dogs.”
After Malakai died from cancer in 2016, the couple welcomed Margaret and her brother Mordekai into their homes.
At the time of the fire, there were 12 dogs on the premises — nine were inside the house. Six of those dogs — Margaret, Mordekai, Willow, Bentley, Sassy and Roman — died as a result of the fire.
“The whole rescue was named after Margaret. Margaret saved my life,” Jessica said, recalling a time when she was feeling depressed, exhausted and “not in a good headspace. That dog followed me around this house all morning. She just kept nudging me, nudging me, nudging me. She was my soul dog.”
Brad added, “They get such a bad rap. They’re the most loving dogs — and loyal.”
Noting that pit bulls are also the most backyard-bred breed in the country, Jessica added that she can relate to feeling misunderstood.
“I see things in rescue — I mean if people can do this to an animal that has no voice, that’s some pretty monstrous people. It causes you to look at the world differently,” she said, adding that she has had prospective adopters become upset with her because she didn’t approve their application.
“As a foster-based rescue and a local business owner, if I’m going to rescue a dog that has so much stigma, I have to do it responsibly, which means that when the application process happens, we’re not lenient,” she said, noting that her priorities are the safety and well-being of the dog as well as the safety of the community. “I always say every dog deserves a home, but not every home deserves a dog.”
In addition to ensuring each dog’s physical health, Margaret’s Saving Grace works with professional dog trainers on behavioral issues, “getting them out of a place of fear” before they are adopted, Jessica said.
“If a dog comes into our rescue and needs training, it’s not getting adopted until it gets training,” she said, pointing out that training can cost between $3,000 and $5,000 per dog.
Additionally, she said, 75% of the adult dogs that come through the rescue are heartworm positive. While some animal shelters will euthanize a dog with that condition, the Cooks said it can be treated. The Cook’s rescue followed a protocol from the American Heart Association — a treatment that costs between $1,200 and $1,800.
Dogs are also neutered or spayed through the rescue.
All told, a dog can leave the rescue after having received upwards of $10,000 in care for a $300 adoption fee, Jessica said.
To help with funds, the rescue operates a store in Front Royal and works with the Interstate Festival Group in Boonsboro, Maryland. Rescue supporters attend various festivals offered there, volunteering their time to help festival organizers and the pay they earn goes back into the rescue.
“We can pull $6,000 to the rescue in one successful event. So that’s a really great fundraiser,” Jessica said, adding that the rescue usually takes 20-40 volunteers to an event and attends several each year. “It’s a fun day to show up for.”
In the weeks since the fire, the Cooks have found themselves on the receiving end of tons of community support.
“We just want to thank everyone,” she said. “So many people helped in so many different ways.”
From donations of money, home goods, gift cards to meal trains and helping continue the work of the rescue while the Cooks recovered, the community stepped up to help in ways big and small, they said.
Grateful and inspired by that support, they plan to start Willow’s Fund, which will help families with pets who experience fires or floods in their homes.
“I know that families go through this and do not have the support that Brad and I had. And that breaks my heart,” Jessica said. “I can’t imagine waking up from this and nobody’s there. A lot of people say to me ‘You’re handling it so well.’ No, I am so grateful. Yes, this was tragic, but I feel I walked away with the one person that I created all of this with and we’re going to do it again. It’s really sad and I really don’t know why this had to happen. There’s a message. I just don’t know what that is yet.”
The couple plans to build a new home on their 5-acre property. The burned house will be torn down and, in its place, they will create a memorial park.
“This will become a rainbow bridge,” Jessica said. The plan is to build a bridge over a koi pond and offer the space to the public to visit with their dogs or in memory of their dogs.
“We’ll make something pretty out of it,” she said.
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