Dear Reader,
Today's guest author, Laurie Zaleski, is the Founder and President of Funny Farm, a rescue and sanctuary located in Mays Landing, NJ. Inspired by her mother and her love of animals, Laurie has led her rescue farm to become one of the largest animal rescues in the northeast. Funny Farm has earned many awards including the Top 10 places to visit in all of New Jersey. Laurie is also the Founder and CEO of Art-Z Graphics and a licensed pilot. She has been named a New Jersey Heartland Hero, is listed in the 2019 Who's Who of Professional Women, and has received numerous awards and acknowledgements for her work to save animals and educate the public about animal abuse. Her memoir, Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals, goes on sale today.
Laurie is giving away two copies of Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals. To enter the drawing, send an email your preferred mailing address to: trademarketing@stmartins.com
Find out more about Funny Farm Rescue and Sanctuary at: https://funnyfarmrescue.org/
Please welcome Laurie Zaleski...
One of my many passions is flying. Ever since I was a small girl, I have always been fascinated by anything that flies from small bugs, to giant swans, to huge aircraft.
Another passion I have is animal rescue. One day, a lady brought me an orphaned 2-day-old baby turkey I named Rosie.
Rosie lived in my house with the dogs and cats. She followed me everywhere, even jumping up on my lap to take her little naps. There were no if, ands, or turkey-butts about it. I was her mom.
My friends would invite me out to a restaurant and they would all carry beautiful purses. Mine was a little different. It had a special space just for Rosie and another compartment for her food because she ate every 2 hours. After a while, they heard little chirps coming from my purse and I would just tell them the truth, which was much better than any story I could have made up. I just said, "I have a baby turkey in there!" They rolled their eyes and said, "Only Laurie!"
I knew it was my job to teach Rosie how to fly, after all, she is a bird. I have a small Cessna 150 I nicknamed "The Blonde Bomber." It was time to combine my passions, animals and airplanes!
As we flew, I put her up on the dashboard so she could see out the windows. Rosie loved every minute of it. My plan was to push the yoke abruptly down causing the airplane to be completely weightless, at least for a few seconds. As a kid, I called it the "tummy tickler" much like the feeling you get on a roller coaster.
Each time I would climb a little, and then push the yoke in. Sure enough, Rosie's little wings began to flap, and flap. After about 3 times, she learned to fly! The more she'd fly, the more she'd chirp! We did this several times until I determined, she, herself, was "airworthy."
Since then, I have had many animals in my little Cessna. There were a variety of missions from animal rescues to visits of animals I had in special hospitals. At the time, there were very few women pilots.
Certainly, I worked hard to learn to fly and nothing was handed to me. Like most things in my life, I knew if something was going to happen, I couldn't sit around wishing. With the determination I learned from my mother, I knew that absolutely nothing was impossible!
-- Laurie Zaleski
To enter my drawing for one of two copies of my book, Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals, send an email to: trademarketing@stmartins.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.
Comments