Comments from Other Authors
"As the adoring owner or former owner of dogs, cats, parrots, rabbits, and 600 gallons of saltwater fish, I was utterly delighted with Enslaved by Ducks. Bob Tarte profoundly understands and brilliantly articulates the extraordinary connections between humans and animals. With Sadie and Sophie, my two bichon frises, snuggled at my side, I read this book enrapt. Indeed, I even shared passages aloud with my two little friends. Bob Tarte would certainly understand."
Robert Olen Butler
Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
"I started to read a page and ended up reading the book! Enslaved By Ducks is a laugh-out-loud chronicle of what it means to bring animals - a blind turkey, an irascible rabbit, a lovesick dove - into your heart and home and make them part of the fabric of your life. As Bob Tarte shows, with animal after animal, it's not enough in the end to just provide the basics of food, water and shelter; you have to love them like family. And he's right: if you are an animal lover, your bond with animals goes far deeper than just companionship. It really is a way of life."
Marty Becker, DVM
Good Morning America, talk radio host of Pets Unleashed
"All of us who feel a deep emotional connection with animals will respond to such wonderful moments in this book as the goose who honks to call his friend Bob and the sick turkey who struggles to her feet at the sound of his voice. Bob Tarte realizes there is no drug or therapy as effective as an animal who loves you.."
Jeffrey Masson
Author of
When Elephants Weep
"If you thought one backyard duck was much like another, wait till you meet the tiny, indomitable Peggy, who laid down her life to save her fellow ducks. What May Sarton did for cats in The Fur Person and Sterling North did for raccoons in Rascal, Bob Tarte does for ducks. And destructive parrots and fierce rabbits and a talking baby starling and a whole house and yard full of demanding oddballs that, by comparison, will make you feel better about your own domestic life."
Barbara Holland
Author of They Went Whistling
"This is a beautiful, honest, hilarious and touching book about the subtle and blatant ways animal companions take over our lives. It's impossible to read Enslaved by Ducks and not fall just a little bit in love with Bob Tarte, his charming, heroic wife Linda and their menagerie. This is a must-read for both bona-fide animal enthusiasts and those folks who, like Bob, unwittingly find themselves ruled by pets they never asked for and yet can't imagine life without."
Jana Murphy
Author of
The Secret Lives of Dogs
