True story of love, commitment and devotion

Author, Darryl Schwartz, tells the story of life with his adopted Keeshond, Scruffy. Scruffy the Legend is a true story about love, commitment, and devotion. Although written in a light-hearted and mildly humorous style, this is a powerfully emotional book.

Available at:

Online:

Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com

In store:

Helen's Books & Gifts
28 Beechwood Rd
Summit, NJ 07901

Become a friend of Scruffy on Facebook.  Join the Scruffy the Legend group.

Scruffy The Legend is nothing more than a true story about a dog and my love for that dog. Through your reading of this book, I think you will gain a deeper understanding of the emotional ties that can exist between a human and a dog.

So come take a journey with me to a simpler time: to a time when you were not aware of the important social, political, or moral issues of the day; to a time when, perhaps, a dog was most important to you. Scruffy took me on this journey every day. It was largely because of him that I was able to maintain a totally immature outlook on life well into my sixties.

Here are some excerpts from the book:

From the Prologue:

Karen and I were married 14 years ago. We both worked for the same company. We were married on our lunch break. The marriage was not announced to anyone—family, friends or colleagues. We still have not had a reception, although, we keep saying that one day we will. Our idea of the perfect date before we were married was a trip to Nathan’s hot dogs located inside of our local Home Depot. Lately we have become more cultured, and have found that eating lunch at Whole Foods supermarkets is even better and more appropriate for mature individuals such as ourselves.

From "The Pack Leader"

It took me time to understand that the "spirit" I saw in Scruffy was, at least in part, related to a dominant personality. Eventually I came to understand that he was a pack leader in his own mind…

… Well, as you will see, Scruffy did turn out to have his share of bad habits. You have to understand Scruffy was my dog, not a dog. Therefore, normal rules for dog training or even for dog-human interaction, did not necessarily apply.

From "Call of the Wild"

Scruffy wanted desperately to howl. He just couldn’t remember how, after so many years of separation from his ancestral wolves. He came closest to howling when greeting me from the back steps as I would drive up in a car. The sound came out "woo, woo woo", just like when speaking to me at any other time, but the expression and body language were different. The head was held in an upward direction and the eyes were looking downward at me as I approached the steps. He looked pretty much like his picture on the front cover of this book.

From "Freedom Day"

I was relieved to see that the snaps were only for warning and the teeth stopped an inch or so from the Pug’s nose. Ozzie was not at all impressed and immediately put his nose under Scruffy’s tail. Scruffy attempted to run away, but Ozzie pursued him, keeping his nose as close to Scruffy’s butt as he could. From a distance, it appeared as if there were an invisible string tied from Scruffy’s butt to the Pug’s nose. It must have been the most wonderful scent imaginable to a Pug. The two dogs went around and around, but Scruffy could not shake the Pug.

From "The fourth of July"

I was in the basement taking some clothes out of the dryer. I heard Karen come back into the house. Suddenly from upstairs, I heard a commotion. Karen cried out "Scruffy can’t breath and his tongue is blue."