Pat: The Story of a Seeing Eye Dog

by S.P. Meek

Genres: Animals

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Sterner St. Paul Meek was a US military chemist, early science fiction author, and children's author. He published much of his work first as Capt. S.P. Meek, then, briefly, as Major S.P. Meek and, after 1933, as Col. S.P. Meek. He also published one story as Sterner St. Paul.

Reviews

[Stephen Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book, published in 1947, well enough, but the writing and story were pretty straightforward. The first several chapters has our hero Jimmy and his sentry dog Pat in an island in the South Pacific fighting the Japanese. As you may guess the alerts of the dog save many lives. This part of the story ends tragically, as you would guess from the book being relating to a seeing eye dog.

I like the older books, they have a different feel to them. A little of that 'gee whiz' spirit to them and in fact there were a few times 'gee' and 'swell' were used, but not too much. At one point Father Ryan is trying to comfort him and Jimmy lashes out:

"Go fry an egg," Jimmy said rudely. "What good can you do? What good can anyone do? I'm blind, don't you understand, I'm blind!"

Fortunately Jimmy apologizes to Father Ryan later.

His fiancé takes the news of his blindness well.

"He certainly took it on the chin, but I'm terribly proud of the way he's coming through. Father Ryan must be quite a man. I'd love to meet him. Of course I'll stick by Jimmy, what else could I do? I happen to love the big ape. I wonder what gave Father Ryan the idea I might give Jimmy the air just because he's blind?

So no big conflict with the supportive Fiancé. After getting away from his overly supportive mother, Jimmy goes to 'The Seeing Eye', which is said to be the best known school in the United States for the training of guide dogs for the blind, located about four miles from Morristown, New Jersey. He learns to navigate with a seeing eye dog. Coincidently, the dog they assign to him is also named Pat, just like the one he had while in the marines. The details of him using a canine partner is pretty straightforward. He marries his fiancé Irene, gets a job, then the big finish where he has to navigate through dangerous terrain to help save the day. So, pretty typical dog story stuff, but unfortunately, nothing I thought was enough to make it stand out. I still want to read all of Colonel S.P. Meeks books, but I would recommend a lot of other books before getting to this particular old book.

The history of the Seeing Eye organization however is interesting. There is information on the school in the appendix, but if you search for the Seeing Eye in Morristown, you can navigate to their 'looking back' link to their history. They were the first seeing eye dog training organization. Their information includes:

In 1923, co-founder Dorothy Harrison Eustis (May 30, 1886 – September 8, 1946) and her husband moved from the U.S. to Switzerland, where they founded Fortunate Fields. They bred and trained German shepherds for the army and police. In 1927, Eustis wrote an article, titled “The Seeing Eye,” for The Saturday Evening Post about a school in Germany training dogs to lead soldiers blinded in World War I. Young Morris Frank wrote to ask Eustis to train a dog for him and she agreed.
Mr. Morris Frank, who is blind, and is one of the 4 people who founded the school, has the distinction of being the first sightless person to make use of a 'Seeing Eye' dog guide in the United States.

So, while I wouldn't recommend rushing out and getting 'Pat', I would recommend you look up 'The Seeing Eye", reading their history, and supporting the organization.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a German Shepherd trained as a seeing eye dog.

[A Hoppy Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a child and adored it. I wish I could find a copy.