“Tuk With A Red Scarf”

Now living in Chico, Judy Blishen Soto, “a Native American of the Ohlone tribe” made Paradise her home. She writes that she was “an entertainer, singer, songwriter…. I had over two hundred creative works, poems, short stories that I had written and were getting ready to publish, plus songs I had composed.” Everything was destroyed in the Camp Fire.

She started again, this time with a family story about their beloved black Lab. It really happened, she writes in an author’s note, and “none of the names or events in this story are fictitious.”

Designed for kids six through eight, “Tuk With A Red Scarf” ($10.95 in paperback from Austin Macauley Publishers; also for Amazon Kindle) is a delightful tale (ahem) of a dog who brought a little miracle to pass.

“It all started out to be a normal day, giving my husband and three children breakfast and seeing them off to school and work.” The family had two pooches, Scottish terrier Scotty, and Tuk with a red scarf. Weirdly, this morning only Scotty came to eat; the gate was open and Tuk was gone.

Soto waited until the children got home from school but no Tuk. So they piled in the car to drive to the pound, a half hour away, before “my husband got home from work… We had two and a half hours to look for Tuk and get back home to make dinner and pretend all was well.” 

They didn’t find Tuk, but, strangely, there was another black Lab--wearing a red scarf--named Leonard, who (sadly) was going to be put down the next day since he had not been claimed in weeks. 

“We could save this dog’s life. Children let’s decide, should we take Leonard home and maybe your dad won’t notice it’s not our Tuk with a red scarf?” You know the answer, and off they went with Lenny. “We still need to pray for Tuk,” Soto told her children, “that nothing happens to him and that God will keep him safe and bring him home soon.”

What comes next is one of those unexpected twists that no one would believe unless it actually happened.

"Odd Otis: A Special Needs Dog Who Doesn't Know He's Special Needs"

Odd Otis is a "special needs" Australian Shepherd, born in 2007 and blind and deaf from birth. He was rescued from the middle of the Skyway and came to live with Magalia residents Alan and Kathi Hiatt. The story is told in "Odd Otis: An Unusual Tail (Tale) About An Unusual Dog" and his notoriety led to signings and school presentations.

Kathi writes me that "we talk to the kids about the importance of patience and tolerance when dealing with special need animals and people." But because "some of the children have been a little too young to actually read the book," the Hiatts have now published a picture version, with color photographs, to show kids how Odd Otis "can pretty much do all the things other dogs can do." And maybe a few they can't.

"Odd Otis: A Special Needs Dog Who Doesn't Know He's Special Needs" (Amazon Kindle; see oddotis.com) features a large image and a simple caption on each page, written by Odd Otis himself responding to the natural curiosity of children. "I can't see," he writes, "but I can find the doggie door to go do my outside business!"

Why the sporty sunglasses shown on the cover? "When I'm outdoors I wear doggles to protect my eyes from flying bugs and low branches." "Ottie" also has "a special water bowl so it won't tip over if I step on it." On car trips he rides in a car seat.

"There's an upside to being deaf," he writes. "When the rugs are being vacuumed the loud 'VROOM' doesn't wake me from my nap … and when I'm being brushed the noisy hairdryer doesn't scare me!"

He shows "children how to say 'hello': Ask my human if it's OK to pet me; make a fist and let me smell your hand; pet my chest and sides, not the top of my head."

Many of the pictures will tug at the reader's heart (I admit it.). But the book is not about feeling sorry. Instead, it's a celebration of the active life of an unusual dog--and how family love makes all the difference.

Magalia couple goes to the dogs

If Alan and Kathi Hiatt thought retirement would be dull and boring, it’s clear they had nothing to worry about. Brought up in Chico and Gridley, the Hiatts have become “dog people,” adopting a trio of Basset Hounds (Winchester, Abby, and Lucy) and one white, 45-pound, long-haired Australian Shepherd mix with quite a story.

“Odd Otis: An Unusual Tail (Tale) About An Unusual Dog” ($7.99 in paperback from CreateSpace; also for Amazon Kindle) intertwines chapters written by Alan with far more sensible chapters written by Kathi (as Alan will attest), with a Q&A Section at the end (and more at oddotis.com.)

Alan was tooling up the Skyway in his old Jeep when he spotted the dog “crisscrossing the double yellow line in the middle of the road” near a busy intersection. Alan turned around and was able to scoop him up, and then it happened. “I will never forget the instantaneous warm and powerful jolt that swept through me when this dog wrapped all four legs around my middle, laid his head on my shoulder, and then literally body-melted into my chest.” Otis, it turned out, had been blind and deaf since birth.

“Otis followed Alan everywhere he went and was constantly begging for lap time,” Kathi writes; “Alan, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to be in the same room with Otis without petting or doting on him.” He was smitten. Kathi created a “lost dog” poster and Alan reluctantly put it up around town.

Days later, a woman named Tina, the rightful owner, contacted the couple. But then, seeing the incredible bond that had formed, she graciously agreed that Otis should belong to the Hiatt household.

What follows are tales of new relationships formed (with Kathi and the Bassets); tossed popcorn nights (“only do this when the wife’s not home”); and great Otis yawns (“it does give me the opportunity to check out his teeth”). Told with humor and down-home charm, it’s the on-going story of a special needs dog and an encouragement to others to consider adopting. “Through him,” Kathi writes, “we have reinvented ourselves.”