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Name: Tamra
Three words to describe yourself: caring, determined, talented
Tamra is from Hartford, Connecticut and moved to the south at the age of four. She went to school at UGA for Journalism and graduated in 1988. Ever since Tamra was in the 2nd grade, she knew that she wanted to write. Her first job was in Cartersville newspaper. The editor had Tamra cover "a kind of inappropriate story" in which she needed to interview a farmer who found a dead baby in a knapsack. Tamra said that she left this job after this story. Then, Tamra was an editor for a paper in Greenville, South Carolina and she worked with the children's section for the paper writing short stories. After this, Tamra gave up journalism and became a teacher. A few years ago, she had a dream about a dog named Baxter, but when she woke up, there was no dog. Tamra then tried calling local animal adoption centers to get a dog, but because she did not have any experience taking care of dogs, agencies turned her down. One day, Tamra went to a festival and there was an adoption tent. She asked the man at the booth about what available dogs they had, and there was only one left. When Tamra saw the dog for the first time, he had a cone on his head and a peg for a leg. She asked what the dog's name was and the man replied with the name Baxter. Tamra knew then that this was the dog from her dream and that she would have to take him home. A few months later, Tamra was outside with her dog and a man had crossed the street to Tamra with the intention of grabbing her. Before Tamra realized what was going to happen, Baxter had knocked the man down chasing him away. "If I had not had that dream. I wouldn't have adopted Baxter and he wouldn't have saved my life." Later on, she saw an advertisement in magazine that was looking for true stories about rescue dogs. Tamra submitted her story to the magazine, and they chose her story to be the finale in the series.Now, Tamra writes for an animal wellness magazine and is teaching technology, multi-media, and business at a middle school. She has also written a children's book, but it has not been published yet. Tamra would like to have a family of her own, and she says, "I have a family of fur kids . . . It could mean other animals and people." Tamra adds, "I'm blessed. I thank God everyday cause after all, he's the one that gives us these gifts."