Inspiration Press, Inc.

By Myriam DiGiovanni

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — City County Credit Union Supervisory Committee Member Mack MacVicar and his wife Andrea have a dream of giving away $1 million, and they hope a little black Labrador will help make it a reality.

Inspired by their black lab Zoftic, who they found as part of an abandoned litter behind their then Canton, Mich. home, Andrea has written and Mack has helped promote and publish Tales of Zoftic.

"She was the only female in the litter, and she really blossomed into a ‘zoftic,' which is Yiddish for ‘well-endowed' or 'chubby,' and I first wrote about her as an assignment while taking a creative writing course in the 70s," said MacVicar. "It was two rhyming poems, and I happened to come across them as I was cleaning out my office when I retired as a pastor. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to not only make it a book but give it away."

The children's book tells the story of Zoftic's life through a series of poems. Andrea said the black lab who inspired the tale had so much energy and such a great personality that it was a natural fit for a children's book.

"It's just a story about a family, and Zoftic the dog, and how Zoftic really brings people together," said MacVicar, who drew on her experience as a pastor and family counselor. "It's really about love, affirmation of the family and the circle of life. In our society, family life is disintegrating, and I felt that the message of family love is needed out there. This isn't a quick read. It's a series of stories from when she's a puppy until she dies and it offers a lot of hope, laughter and some tears, too."

The book is available at www.inspirationpress.org, and the MacVicars are donating 100% of the book profits to the Humane Society, Friends of Greyhounds, Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Christian Aid Mission. Even the illustrator, donated her talents pro bono.

"Our biggest dream would be for Oprah to talk about it, Tales of Zoftic becomes a best seller and those millions in sales would then benefit others," said MacVicar.

—mdigiovanni@cutimes.com