The Trouble With Tuck (1981)

The Trouble With Tuck
Theodore Taylor
1981, Doubleday

And if there was anything better to hold than a pup, I don't know what it was. I put him up to my shoulder, against my neck, and his warm tongue swabbed the lobe of my ear. His new fur was like velvet. A love affair began that hour.

It's early 1950's Los Angeles, and 10-year-old Helen Ogden is a shy girl lacking self-confidence. One day, her parents present her with a fat gold Labrador Retriever puppy. Officially christened Friar Tuck Golden Boy, he's just Tuck to Helen. The pair become inseperable, and within a short time Tuck has saved her life twice, once from a pervert in the park and once from drowning in a pool.

But 1956 is different. Tuck, now over three, runs through a screen door and the family begins to wonder if his eyesight is okay. When the vet says Tuck is going blind, there are few alternatives. Helen, miserable at how her beloved dog is suffering from having his freedom curtailed, comes up with an idea nobody thinks will work - get her blind dog a guide dog of his own.

At first, the guide dog organization gently tells Helen that their dogs are far too valuable to be used with another dog. But then a unique situation occurs, and Helen has her chance to use the German Shepherd guide dog Lady Daisy. The only question left is how to train the obdurate, jealous Tuck to put up with a canine housemate and follow a guide.

The free-running Tuck's easy off-leash social life is an anachronism that somewhat confuses the big problem of the book. Today, a family dog in suburbia wouldn't be allowed to run loose, and the only problem involved with having a blind dog would be making sure nobody touched him unexpectedly. The scene where Tuck saves Helen from a pervert in a fog-bound park is scary as hell because of the realism of the scene. Where today a narrator would vague out into "And then everything seemed to slow down and I was thinking of bluebirds." Helen faithfully recounts every last detail of the attack.

Clearly written, with a consistent character voice and appealing heroine and dogs.

Dogs
Friar Tuck Golden Boy - golden Lab with Dudley nose
Lady Daisy - German Shepherd


About the author
1921-2006
The North Carolina native wrote over 50 books. A high school dropout (math issue, my sympathies) he went on to become a press agent and screenwriter in Hollywood. His most famous book was the 1969 YA novel The Cay.

Other Books by the author
There are far too many to list; most relevant is the 1992 sequel, Tuck Triumphant.

Links
Author website
LA Times obituary

Editions


Avon Camelot, 1981 Yearling

Also, an unknown edition cover

A Dog To Trust: The Saga Of A Seeing-Eye Dog
Joseph E. Chipperfield, il. Larry Toschik
1963, David McKay Company, Inc.

London artist Ralph Hardy is on vacation in Exmoor when he meets gentleman farmer John Ash and German Shepherd (or Alsation) puppy Arno. An accident with Marian Ash and a horse injures Ralph, who ends up being cared for by the Ash family for a few days. They all like him and he seems to like them, but after he returns home he fails to keep up the friendship. John Ash, uneasy about the tone of his one brief letter, visits the younger man in London and discovers he's gone blind. There is a chance his vision can be restored through rest and careful use, but the young artist needs to use his eyes to make a living. Troubled by this dire situation, John Ash decides that his family can donate Arno, who is now a healthy young dog, to be trained as a guide dog for Ralph.

There are two unusual notes struck in this look at a blind person/guide dog pairing. First, that Marian grieves for Arno, wishing that the happy animal need not be chained in service to a blind man. She's fond of Ralph, but the dog's sheer joy in living makes it seem to her that walking quietly in harness will be a desecration. She gradually accepts the idea, and Arno is portrayed as being mostly happy as a guide dog, but there's a lingering sense of it being unfair to the dog. Another unusual note is that the pairing of man and dog is accomplished quite easily and rapidly; the trust issues that are usually a huge part of a guide dog story are absent. Trust or lack of it emerges elsewhere, as Ralph is a diffident, remote personality that finds companionship and friendliness difficult. He has to be virtually kidnapped to consent to accepting Ash's overtures, has a hard time at the guide school, and fails to establish any relationship with the locals when he comes to live in Exmoor, leading to a harsh confrontation over a misunderstanding.

Dogs
Arno - German Shepherd/Alsation

Setting
Exmoor
London

Other Books
Greatheart, The Salvation Hunter
Petrus, Dog of the Hill Country
Storm Of Dancerwood
Windruff Of Links Tor
The Grey Dog From Galtymore
Seeko, of the Black Wind
Grey Chieftain

About the Illustrator

Larry Toschik, born in 1922, is an Arizona wildlife artists who has worked at Arizona Highways magazine and at Arizona State University's Bureau of Publications.

Fiction

Coyote, Come Home by B. E. Beebe

Right, Light Buck, Run! by B. E. Beebe

Greeka, Eagle Of The Hebrides by Joseph E. Chipperfield

Jennie's Mandan Bowl by Lyla Hoffine

Objibway Drums by Marian W. Magoon

The House Of Peace by Louisa A. Dyer

Steel Dust, Stallion Of The Grand Canyon by Charley C. Niehuis

The Sky Train by Oren Arnold

Rawhide Johnny by Neta Lohnes Frazier

Nonfiction

Animals Of The Arctic by Alfred Powers

Wild White Wings by Emily Watson Hallin

Follow The Honey Bird by Emily Watson Hallin

Cowboys And Cattlemen by Lela and Rufus Waltrip

Meeting In The Mountains by John B. Prescott

Trails Of His Own: The Story of John Muir by Adrienne Grossman

Building A State In Apache Land by Charles D. Poston

Links

Russell Fink Gallery