Why Do I Keep At It? Homage To Tazzie, Guest Post By Author Paulette Mahurin.

Today my guest post is from Paulette Mahurin, author of "The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap." Here she talks about her reasons for writing and why her work is so vital. I sincerely hope you find this to be both interesting and inspirational.

Paulette Mahurin is a Nurse Practitioner in Ojai, CA, where she lives with her husband and their two rescue dogs. 

She is passionate not only about writing but also about rescuing dogs which they have been involved with for many years.

All of the profits from her books go towards the first no-kill animal shelter (SPARK) in Ventura County, CA, a most worthy cause.

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I have had several loves in my life, but ranking at that top is Tazzie, my beloved rottweiler girl, who went on to the rainbow bridge September, 2011, seems like yesterday. I still miss her, the wagging of her little stubby tail when I came home, the drool at the side of her mouth to let me know it’s meal time, the spot on the carpet where her body left an imprint, beside my bed, her collar still hanging in the entrance hall, and yes a year later little black hair keeps showing up. I loved her with every cell in my body.

Tazzie-painted by Paulette Mahurin.

She lived a good long life, fifteen plus years for that breed is ancient. We got her from our local shelter, here in Ojai, CA, where I live with my husband, Terry and our two new babies, Max & Bella (also rescued from a kill-shelter), over sixteen years ago. She was a purebred, from a puppy mill in Arkansas, shipped out to a pet shop in Los Angeles, and sold to a couple who live in an adjoining city to ours, until the day she ran into the street and was hit by a truck. That was the day, they threw her away to be disposed of, seems the truck broke her femur and they didn't want to help her. Since is was a straight fracture, it wouldn't have required much, just keep her calm, but they still decided to throw her away. Lucky for me. Since my husband and I were into animal rescue for a lot of years already and I’m a Nurse Practitioner, taking care of a dog, no problem.

She came to us with another problem, a tick infestation, of which I contracted a few, one carrying the Lyme bacteria. Tazzie’s femur was fully healed by the time I became very symptomatic, fell off the face of the earth. In my worst days she was there, through all the years, at my side, some days she was the only thing that gave me any reason to want to live (I was debilitated with meningitis, cardiac valve involvement, crippling arthritis, and no energy). I look back at that time as a gift from God, she my angel, because it brought me to myself, to face everything in my life up till now I ran from. In facing, sitting at the seat of my demons, I gained a new freedom, to just be, without any need to be anything. With and through Tazzie, I found myself, what I like to consider is my authentic self. What greater gift could there be?

As the years moved along and I started to regain my health, hers failed. At first it was her hind legs growing weak, then her heart, a cancer in an eye, until the day, at the ripe old age of fifteen years and two weeks, she stopped drinking and went to sleep. She died at home, in my arms, three days later. It wasn’t long after that; I finished my novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap. It was also a coincidence that the first and only no-kill animal shelter opened in Ventura County, Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center, where I live. Tazzie would want me to help other dogs like her, throw-aways, to be disposed of because they were born or were an inconvenience, so it was no stroke of genius on my part to decide to give all profits from my book to this shelter, in the memory of one of my all time best friends and great loves of my life, Tazzie Mahurin. (August 25th, 1996 - September 7th, 2011)

That’s why I tirelessly keep at it, promoting my book, in hopes someone will pick it, read it, spread the word, and furry kids like Tazzie will get out of those cells and find their forever homes.

For more information about Paulette and her book please see the following links:

AMAZON.COM:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+persecution+of+mildred+Dunlap

AMAZON U.K.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+persecution+of+mildred+dunlap

GOODREADS:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14061559-the-persecution-of-mildred-dunlap

SHELFARI:
http://www.shelfari.com/books/28821838/The-Persecution-of-Mildred-Dunlap

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/ThePersecutionOfMildredDunlap

BOOK'S BLOG:
http://thepersecutionofmildreddunlap.wordpress.com/

TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/MahurinPaulette

BOOK'S WEBSITE:
http://bookpromogroup2.weebly.com/paulette-mahurin.html

PRESS ARTICLE:
VC STAR Sept. 9, 2012 Sunday Life Section:
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/sep/08/ojai-authors-historical-novel-teaches-tolerance/

GOOGLE PROFILE PAGE:
https://plus.google.com/100183915878557337061/posts
SANTA PAULA ANIMAL RESCUE CENTER:
http://www.santapaulaarc.org/