How Franchises Worked Together After Superstorm Sandy
The dogs started arriving the morning after the storm. As people awoke to the reality that their homes were flooded, or damaged by high winds, or that the electricity wouldn't be turned back on anytime soon, they began dropping off their pets at Ed and Janice Saxton's home before seeking out that rare hotel with a vacancy.
Soon the Saxtons, owners of a Fetch! Pet Care franchise and one of the lucky families in Bergen County, N.J., that didn't lose power during Superstorm Sandy, were sheltering nine dogs.
At one point, Ed remembers, there were six pups crowded onto the foot of their bed. "I don't think anybody could have prepared for what the hell happened," he says. "It was brutal for a lot of families. Our inconvenience was insignificant compared to what happened to other people."
At the same time the Saxtons were managing their canine charges, Steve Phykitt, also from Bergen County, was office in Midland Park. It took two days of chain-sawing uprooted trees and telephone poles, but eventually Phykitt and his crew managed to reopen their franchise. They set up generators for electricity. As soon as the telephones were back online, they were inundated with calls from desperate people needing someone to fix sump pumps and busted pipes and drain-flooded basements.
