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Aloha, and thank you for visiting this page. I'm Molly, the editor of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, and I know firsthand how important it can be to get a "personal touch" when you're overwhelmed and looking for answers. Since we at Maui Media are headquartered in the most isolated place on the planet -- Maui, Hawaii, six time zones from the East Coast and three time zones from the West Coast, this page will, hopefully, suffice to tell you a little about me, my husband, and why we set up this store.
This store, the blog at DogCancerBlog.com, a best-selling book, dozens of seminars, and a ground-breaking nutraceutical all sprang from a single conversation we had many years ago with our veterinarian, Dr. Demian Dressler.
My husband James started our publishing house Maui Media in 2003, and I joined him in 2006. At the time, we had no idea we were going to publish a book about canine cancer. But there we were, in Dr. D's veterinary hospital, getting some tough news -- and what Dr. D said to us turned out to be really important.
Our little maltese, Maui, was gravely ill. She had a rare disease called granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME), which is an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. It had started a couple of years earlier, right after she had a series of rabies vaccinations in preparation for James and she moving to Hawaii. She also had a lump on her breast, which might be cancerous, and there were other health conditions complicating her health and treatment plans.
Dr. D, who is also a personal friend, took a moment and paused to say "I can see you getting upset, and I totally understand that this is rough news. But I need you -- and Maui needs you -- to set aside your emotional response for a minute, so I can make sure you're getting all the information, now, so you can make some decisions."
Later, much later, when the immediate crisis had passed, James asked Dr. D about that conversation.
"Does that happen a lot?" he asked, "Do a lot of people start to tune you out?"
"It's a huge problem for veterinarians," Dr. D said.
"It's really hard to manage your emotions when you're getting bad news. I wish there were a tool I could hand my clients to help them cope with their emotions, because it's totally normal to feel horrible -- but it gets in the way of hearing what's actually being said."
The publication of The Dog Cancer Coping Guide audiobook sprang from that conversation. Dr. D wrote a script and recorded it in Maui Media's offices. It went on to sell tens of thousands of copies via mp3 download, and eventually we put out a CD version for those who prefer that format.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dressler, inspired by how much the Coping Guide was helping readers, started blogging on DogCancerBlog.com and wrote the first edition of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, which was first released in 2008 as a digital ebook.
The information in it was so important and helped so many people who were dealing with canine cancer. We heard that our readers wanted a paperback edition of the guide and so Dr. Dressler and our editorial team went to work to release the second edition of the book in paperback.
That is when Dr. Susan Ettinger, a veterinary oncologist and schoolmate of Dr. Dressler's from Cornell University's School of Veterinary Medicine, came on board as a co-author to supervise the book and add an entirely new section, complete with her detailed thoughts on the ten most common types of cancer she sees as an oncologist.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dressler conducted a monthly Seminar series for dog lovers facing dog cancer -- every month -- for several years. Listeners called in and wrote in about every topic imaginable. Those recordings are still gold to listen to -- and many contain information that just couldn't be squeezed in the final edition of the 496-page paperback The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog's Life Quality and Longevity.
In 2003, when we first established our independent book publishing house, Maui Media, we didn't ever expect that we would publish so very many titles about dog cancer.
But when your very own vet is one of the first to notice that cancer is the #1 killer of dogs in his practice -- and comes up with outside-the-box ways to address it -- the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" very much applies.
Since we started working with Dr. D on his publications, we have changed just about every aspect of care for our own dogs. His recommendations and thoughtful approach to health are systematic, and profoundly helpful. Little Maui passed away in 2008, but our dogs Kanga and Roo benefit every day from what we've learned from Dr. Dressler.
In fact, we've had to use The Dog Cancer Survival Guide ourselves, recently, for Kanga's own cancer journey. As her mom, I was profoundly grateful the book exists! You can read more about her journey in this article.
We hope you find Dr. Dressler's books, audiobooks, and seminars as helpful as so many have before you. Even though we live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we feel deeply connected to everyone else who loves their dog(s) as much as we love ours.
Aloha from our family to yours,
Molly Jacobson
Maui Media, LLC has an A+ rating from Better Business Bureau -- because we care!
Maui Media, LLC
1215 S. Kihei Rd., Ste. O-155
Kihei, Maui, Hawaii 96753
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