To help save the lives of abandoned pets, animal lover Joshua Bayer has written and self-published a 10-page story, and will send all of the proceeds to animal rescue groups.
It’s tough for most 8-year-old boys to sit still for ten minutes, let alone a whole summer. But for Joshua Bayer of La Plata, Maryland, there was a good excuse to ignore the lure of the ice cream truck: the muse had called him to work.
While his friends were playing videogames and chasing after the ice cream truck, Joshua spent much of the last two months working on his first original manuscript, for a 10-page story called “M-M-M-Monster!!!”
The story deals with a group of monsters that invade a family’s house. But rather than fighting off the monsters, the family eventually becomes friends with them, and invites them to stay forever, clearing 40 acres of space for them to live on. The monsters, Joshua claims, are representative of cats and dogs. As an avid animal lover from a family focused on animal rescue, Joshua believes that domestic animals should never be abused or mistreated, and wants to encourage others to save the lives of abandoned pets.
“I Googled it, and I figured out that more than 3,000 dogs are dying each year,” Joshua told the Washington Post. “People don’t adopt them, or they’re dying in the streets.”
To help these animals, Joshua’s family is self-publishing his story book, and plans to donate all of the proceeds, as well as additional money that the boy has saved, to animal rescue groups. The family has printed 150 copies to start with, and is selling them for $10. Several local bookstores have agreed to stock it, and are very supportive of the animal-loving boy’s mission.
Animal rescue group leaders, such as Barb Whipkey of the St. Mary’s Animal Rescue League, which adopted a dog to the Bayer family years ago, are also on board with Joshua’s generous idea. “Obviously, children learn better from other children,” Whipkey said. “If we can start with the children, they can grow up knowing how to care for animals and that someone needs to look out for animals.”