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Scruffy: The Return
Illustrated with photos of the whole gang of strays, this is the long-awaited sequel to 'Scruffy: The Tuesday Dog’, inspired by a dog that reporter Jack Stoneley discovered in the Manchester & District Dogs Home. Struck by the lovable stray sitting quietly but forlorn in a cold, forbidding cage marked ‘Tuesday’, Jack knew at once he had to do something about it.
If a stray was brought in on a Tuesday it was put in the Tuesday cell. If no one bailed it out by the following Tuesday, it took its last walk to the room at the end of the yard where it would be put to sleep. On the Tuesday after Jack visited, his article appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror, and its readers refused to let her die. From being the pooch without a pal, she became the most wanted dog in Britain. When it was all over, Manchester miner’s son Derrick Davies, just 4 years of age at the time, threw his arms around the abandoned dog’s neck and said, ‘Daddy, is he really mine!’
Jack was so moved by the nation’s response that he wrote Scruffy: The Tuesday Dog, dedicating the tale to the many millions of unwanted strays throughout the world. And then he wrote the sequel, Scruffy: the Return, which takes up the story after her rescue, when Derrick’s mother discovers that Scruffy is about to have pups.
In Scruffy: the Return the father of Scruffy’s pups is revealed as one of the original gang of strays – Butch, the bull terrier that ran the gang before they were picked up in Book 1. Fact and fiction mix in a captivating tale full of such charm and realism that as far away as America, the story so bewitched readers they started a blog on the Internet.
Scruffy: the Return comes with an active List of Illustrations which enables you to home in on the photographs of the canine characters in the story.
If a stray was brought in on a Tuesday it was put in the Tuesday cell. If no one bailed it out by the following Tuesday, it took its last walk to the room at the end of the yard where it would be put to sleep. On the Tuesday after Jack visited, his article appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror, and its readers refused to let her die. From being the pooch without a pal, she became the most wanted dog in Britain. When it was all over, Manchester miner’s son Derrick Davies, just 4 years of age at the time, threw his arms around the abandoned dog’s neck and said, ‘Daddy, is he really mine!’
Jack was so moved by the nation’s response that he wrote Scruffy: The Tuesday Dog, dedicating the tale to the many millions of unwanted strays throughout the world. And then he wrote the sequel, Scruffy: the Return, which takes up the story after her rescue, when Derrick’s mother discovers that Scruffy is about to have pups.
In Scruffy: the Return the father of Scruffy’s pups is revealed as one of the original gang of strays – Butch, the bull terrier that ran the gang before they were picked up in Book 1. Fact and fiction mix in a captivating tale full of such charm and realism that as far away as America, the story so bewitched readers they started a blog on the Internet.
Scruffy: the Return comes with an active List of Illustrations which enables you to home in on the photographs of the canine characters in the story.
127 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2017
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 24, 2014
In this sequel to The Tuesday Dog, author Jack Stoneley revisits the life of Scruffy as we get to find out what happened her after the events in the previous book. After having pups, our female lead is mortified when they're all given away. Concerned, her new owners arrange a meeting with Butch's new owner. This encounter is the first in a series of unrelated events that reunites all players of the first book's cast (with the exception of the collie; we never find out what happened to her after the lorry-driver took her in) in the old abandoned car lot they had made home.
It turns out that it's not all happy-ever-after for most of the group. One of them even ends up back in the pound long enough to be lead to the room with the green door. Solo ends up attacked underground in one encounter, and ends up at the vets in another one. Sam has his kindly nature abused and taken advantage of, to the point where his lust for the female dogs is briefly destroyed. Hamlet doesn't quite have it so bad, but has aged since the last book. He gets evicted from the pub he'd made home, but (as they say) you can't keep an old dog down and he soon recovers from this tragedy.
As before, there is enough light hearted entertainment to balance out the gloomer aspects with most of the comic relief this time coming from the humans involved in the story. The man who adopted Butch provides a lot of it, though this is more through how Jack writes him and his interactions with others instead of him being an actual comedy character.
All in all, this is one of those books that didn't need to be written but you're glad it was. It's best if left a few months if you've just read The Tuesday Dog to get an idea of how long time has passed between the two books. A lot like Toy Story 3 being set the same number of years from Toy Story 2 as it had actually been between the two films. You end up feeling like you're meeting up with some old acquaintances and the book is the catch up with the character's lives that you would have over a coffee with a long-lost friend.
It is an easy read, taking a little less time than the first book. The only downside is the very end. I think it's meant to be another happy-ever-after ending, but it raises questions about Butch's owner and the quality of his character. In a bid to keep this mostly spoiler free, I'll not say here what the problem is, but it's something I didn't think about until shortly after finishing the book. Other than that, it's a solid read and well worth checking out. Especially if you've read The Tuesday Dog.
It turns out that it's not all happy-ever-after for most of the group. One of them even ends up back in the pound long enough to be lead to the room with the green door. Solo ends up attacked underground in one encounter, and ends up at the vets in another one. Sam has his kindly nature abused and taken advantage of, to the point where his lust for the female dogs is briefly destroyed. Hamlet doesn't quite have it so bad, but has aged since the last book. He gets evicted from the pub he'd made home, but (as they say) you can't keep an old dog down and he soon recovers from this tragedy.
As before, there is enough light hearted entertainment to balance out the gloomer aspects with most of the comic relief this time coming from the humans involved in the story. The man who adopted Butch provides a lot of it, though this is more through how Jack writes him and his interactions with others instead of him being an actual comedy character.
All in all, this is one of those books that didn't need to be written but you're glad it was. It's best if left a few months if you've just read The Tuesday Dog to get an idea of how long time has passed between the two books. A lot like Toy Story 3 being set the same number of years from Toy Story 2 as it had actually been between the two films. You end up feeling like you're meeting up with some old acquaintances and the book is the catch up with the character's lives that you would have over a coffee with a long-lost friend.
It is an easy read, taking a little less time than the first book. The only downside is the very end. I think it's meant to be another happy-ever-after ending, but it raises questions about Butch's owner and the quality of his character. In a bid to keep this mostly spoiler free, I'll not say here what the problem is, but it's something I didn't think about until shortly after finishing the book. Other than that, it's a solid read and well worth checking out. Especially if you've read The Tuesday Dog.
Displaying 1 of 1 review