Meeting My Fictional Protagonist in Real Life
Local Hero & My Fictional Protagonist
By Gabi Justice
We need more mercy in the world today. If you turn on the news all you see are confusing numbers of a cunning virus, people shooting people, mobs destroying property. It’s scary and heartbreaking. But today I saw hope in the hazel eyes of a rescued pit bull named Basil. For as cruel as humans had been to her, she still wagged her tail and nuzzled her nose up to me, a stranger. Why? … Because of Mercy Full Project!
Her name is Heydi and she’s the real-life version of Kendall, the protagonist in my book Dog Girl. Like Kendall she fights to save dogs. Unlike Kendall, she grew up in Columbia. After years of volunteering and fostering, and with a little encouragement from her husband Nash, she’s now on the other side. Only a year ago, September 2019, she opened her own nonprofit corporation. And honestly, it’s just in time with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Heydi explains, “Before people would take a dog to the shelter. The shelters are not taking any animals unless it is a hazard to the community or unless it’s a dog that is … falling apart … Okay, so if I don’t have a job; I don’t have food for my family; I cannot pay my car payment; I cannot pay my mortgage. How am I going to support the animal? Like I said we’re in a crisis … a social crisis. It just goes from a family to the animal to what’s happening in society. We’re going through a moment in history where we are forgetting we are human … They throw the animal in the street. I kid you not, literally throw.”
As a child, Heydi harassed kids in the streets of Columbia when they chased chickens or pulled cats’ tails. She threw bricks through her neighbor’s window to stop the neighbor from scalding stray dogs with hot water. She hid strays at her grandmother’s house. She was surrounded by a society unsympathetic to animals, but indifference never found its way into her heart. In fact, her experience bred the opposite and fueled her drive to make the world a better place.
As I sat with my daughter, Julia, at Khawa coffee in downtown Tampa, I saw Heydi’s wide smile and kind eyes before I saw the Mercy Full Project logo on her shirt. I hadn’t met her yet, but I knew I’d adore her from her welcoming nature and her social media posts. With my book Dog Girl only months away from publication, I had been searching for potential readers on Instagram and stumbled upon Mercy Full Project. When I realized it was right here in my backyard, I hit follow and what I saw made me cry happy and sad tears. I’d found my protagonist in flesh and bone.
I had to meet her. I had to donate.
Most of us love dogs. We get a puppy. We feed it, love it, take care of it, maybe even write a book with dog characters. But Heydi’s love for and commitment to animals goes above and beyond. Her daily routine and years full of stories exhausted me. I honestly do not think she sleeps.
After coffee and a long chat, we headed to one of her foster’s home. Petra lives on a few acres of land with horses, goats, and dogs. Like Heydi, she has devoted herself to animal rescue. Several dogs came trotting up to meet us. Petra welcomed us inside to meet the rescued pit, Basil. I got a good look at the open wounds on Basil’s paws as she laid in my lap, not an ounce of aggression in her. I can’t imagine the abuse this poor dog went through and yet she showered us with loving kisses. If there are angels, then this dog is for sure one of them. And Heydi and Petra have seen many dogs with stories of horrible cruelty.
Before we leave to head to another foster, Heydi opens the back hatch of her car to give Petra some necessities for Basil. Donated and purchased dog food, cat litter, animal medications, blankets, and more pile high in the back of her car. I doubt Heydi can see out of her rearview window. Heydi spends her spare time gathering these supplies and taking them to her fosters. And the route is miles and miles long. She treks from Orlando to Sarasota to Tampa to Miami. Can you imagine the cost of all of this? Plus, vet bills!
If you think this is Heydi’s full time job, think again. She’s fully employed as a Human Resources professional. Full time job, full time wife, full time daughter, and at one point she had twenty dogs in her little apartment.
At the coffee shop, I had asked her why she does it? She referenced her relationship with God. She also recounted the heartbreaking story that was her tipping point to become a facilitator. A dog sick with Parvo died in her arms at the intersection of Bearss Avenue and I-275 in Tampa as she sat in the passenger seat while Nash sped to the urgent care. “I saw his soul leave his body and I was devasted.” The grief lingered inside her for six months and sparked Mercy Full Project.
Something inside Heydi longs to save them and usually the worst ones. Nash gave her a grin then looked to me and explained that she will always find the animal with a broken leg or the one too mean to be wanted by anyone else. As of now, Mercy Full Project has adopted out one hundred and forty animals and currently houses fifty-five animals in fosters. One day she hopes to have her own facility. A place where dogs will reside until adoption if a foster home is unavailable. A place larger than her apartment or car to store the food, medicines, blankets, and such.
As Julia and I listened to her stories, she smiled wide and Nash nodded his head. Like us, he’s amazed and inspired. It takes a special person to wade through the thick inhumanity and persevere. Not to mention the occasional prejudice. She recalled a person that had reached out to Mercy Full Project to surrender an animal. As she explained the process to this person, the paperwork and such, he became angry. He didn’t like her accent and instead of having patience and trying to understand her or why all the red tape was necessary, he lashed out with racist words and told her to go back to her own country. Of course, my mouth gaped open, but she just shrugged and said, “If I let all these things get to me, I’d go crazy.” She also finds peace in the fact that there are so many good people that do help her and her nonprofit organization.
She has a mission, and Nash supports her all the way. They laughed about when they first met. He’s a car dealer and had business in Miami. He was dressed in a fine suit, driving a beautiful, new car while she sat in the passenger seat holding a newly rescued dog that had just pooped all over her. Again, Heydi shrugged and said, “He knew what he was getting into from the start.”
I laugh at the similarity of my two main characters first encounter. In Dog Girl, Kendall face plants in the mud trying to train a rambunctious Bull Terrier when good-looking, handsomely dressed Ryan strolls up. She’s mortified that she smells of dog poop, but all he sees is a tenacious girl with a big heart. Like I said, Heydi and Kendall share a lot of the same stories and personality quirks.
And as if all of this wasn’t enough, Heydi also feeds and provides for the local homeless. She’s adopted a park to clean and maintain in the heart of a less fortunate area of Tampa. This Dog Girl is amazing, and I hope my dear character Kendall grows up to be just like Heydi.
Mercy Full Project
813-836-0711
