I loved this book! It made me laugh many times over and made me cry, too. I even learned some things about animals! The book spans 10 years of the author’s (Bob’s) life-events related to animals. Each chapter is devoted to a certain animal, or an animal event. It’s fun to see Bob’s changing attitude towards animals. He starts out as a begrudging pet owner (though it’s quite obvious that deep down he adores his rabbit!), and ends up gloating about his numerous pets to innocent bystanders at pet marts. While there is always a tad of the begrudging-act in Bob, it’s so transparent that it’s quite easy to tell how enamored he is by his pets. He gives a very honest telling of this, too, poking fun of himself quite often (almost always) throughout the book, and repeats numerous times how much his wife, Linda, handled most of the really hard stuff when it came to caretaking.It took me a few chapters to really get into the book, but once you learn who Bob is, and understand his writing wit and humor, the book is excellent! Even the acknowledgements are hilarious! I felt that I really knew Bob and Linda, and frankly their pets, too! There are great descriptions of the animals, their characters, and expressions! I can actually vouch for his description of rehabbing baby birds – and if the rest of his stories are as accurate as that, then it must be a very honest book! And I could completely sympathize with many of his emotions.So long as you don’t mind a few (very few) cuss words, or a few insights in the animal “facts of life,” or the fact that (at least, as I surmise) the Tartes’ are vegetarians and make a couple of references to the carnivorous folk of the world, then I highly recommend this book!We also get a glimpse into Bob’s visits to his psychologist and his dealings with Zoloft – but somehow he manages to always tie it back in with his animals.I’d be the last person to say that a cat doesn’t have a soul, or that a dog can’t love you, but I’d probably be lying if I didn’t say that I was hesitant to believe such things about birds. Bob’s totally changed my mind. I love the ending of the title chapter and the book itself – I think those are the two places where we really see what animals mean to Bob, and how much they can impact our lives.I highly recommend reading this book – and I highly suggest you read it with your pet nearby!:D****Glowing review to follow!:D****My Christmas book from Katie. Sounds quite amusing and fun!:)
I read this book because I had read several over-the-top, RAVE reviews. I was pretty bored through most of the book, although there were a few laugh out loud moments. There were also a few moments that should have been LOL, but were poorly delivered. What kept me from liking it was the visual imagery of 4-6 inside birds, 3 inside bunnies, and a few occasional inside ducks. That is more poop and animal mess than two people could ever hope to clean up. Additionally, they fed their birds food right off their plates at dinner, and seemed to come back for seconds with the same spoon the animal had already eaten off of. I kept picturing an old dilapidated farmhouse smeared with animal feces. The author's bio makes him seem like a man that would never live like that, and his wife cleans houses for a living, but the scant descriptions of the cleanliness of his home were not enough to settle my imagination.This book does improve upon reflection. Mr. Tarte infuses each of his pets with a distinct personality that is very similar to human behavior. In talking to my friends recently about our kids, I find myself thinking about pets in this book and how they share common traits. With the pets, though, the exhibited behavior is simpler in nature and easier to identify and ameliorate. What surprised me was both behavior in the animal and in the child was so similar and both required similar steps to improve it. I also think I was never fully on-board with this memoir because I currently do not have a pet. I would encourage anyone who has a cherished animal to give this book a read. It also serves as a semi-entertaining instruction manual for people raising less common animals like rabbits, parrots, pigeons, geese, ducks, and turkeys. I think the pet store should post this book as a "to read" before owning any type of bird or rabbit.
What do You think about Enslaved By Ducks (2004)?
I thought the other reviews of this book were really harsh. As someone who has owned pets my entire life, I can identify with the author's use of hyperbole to demonstrate the way his animals drove him insane. He sounds like a typical guy, with a wife who brings in animals to his life and he says no way, and winds up falling in love with them! The dedicate their lives to the animals, and cry when they are gone. I would agree with the reviews about the raccoon. He was really stupid for feeding them, but he realized it and said so! I found myself literally laughing at several parts of the book. I really liked it because i could sympathize with the animal ownership and hilarious stories.
—Melissa
“Bob Tarte, who lives in Lowell, or as he calls it: ‘on the edge of a shoe-sucking, mink-infested swamp,’ is a man of many talents. When he’s not bird-watching, befriending the local wildlife, being eaten alive by mosquitoes, or managing his menagerie of diverse animals (including ducks, geese, turkeys, parrots, parakeets, rabbits, and several demanding cats), he’s writing books. His excruciatingly funny memoirs are recorded in his three books: ‘Enslaved by Ducks,’ ‘Fowl Weather,’ and ‘Kitty Cornered.’ The titles give an inkling of what this self-effacing man and his long-suffering wife had to endure at the hands (or should I say, paws, claws, and talons) of the delightful animals who somehow adopted him. I’ve met Bob and had lovely long chats with him. He’s just as charming and unassuming in person as he appears in his books.” —Cathy at KDL’s Kentwood (Richard L. Root) branch
—Kent District Library
This is a difficult book to rate and review. So many mixed emotions, good, bad and ugly. I read several other reviews on the book and agreed with all of them, regardless of their rating. I hated and loved it, so I'm rating it in the middle. It took me quite awhile to get into the story. Early on some paragraphs were so wordy it was ridiculous. I really shouldn't have to look up the definitions of several words in a paragraph, especially when reading about ducks. But the more animals they acquired, the less he flaunted his vocabulary and just got down to story telling. I had a hard time relating to what I would call their animal insanity but found the story appealing. Probably because I've had some experience with many of the animals myself, though not all at once. The author's witty humor caught me off guard a few times and I snickered or laughed out loud several times.If you want a light hearted, weird, witty, mind boggling, tender, head shaking visit into the life of a man (my son would call a Dandy)whose married to an out of control animal lover, then pick up this book and read it. Otherwise, skip and move on to something else.
—Suzanne