“Following Atticus” by Tom Ryan – A Snowy Adventure Melted by Love

Tom Ryan was a newspaperman like many others before him, and nothing really set him apart from anyone else. However, on a sad day one his very close friends passed away from cancer, an even which ended up spinning Tom inside out, making him re-evaluate his own life and his decisions. 

As a manner of paying tribute to his deceased friend, Tom decided to do the most daring thing he will probably attempt in his lifetime: climbing the forty-eight four-thousand foot peaks found in New Hampshire… twice in a single winter. Apart from paying tribute to his friend, Ryan’s exploits would also be an effort to raise money for charity.

In Following Atticus, Tom Ryan chronicles his adventures, his perilous journeys across the snowy mountains only in the company of one of his best friends, his dog. However, the book goes much deeper than simply stating facts about what happened on the journey. 

When he sets out on it, Tom can be described as a bit of a pessimist, or perhaps cold-hearted would be more appropriate. However, as he goes on and on with his journey, it seems his heart starts to melt as he begins to really appreciate the greatness and beauty of what he lays his eyes upon.

Another interesting facet of Following Atticus is the relationship between Tom and his dog. I guarantee that those of you who are dog owners will be reading the passages about Atticus with a big smile on your faces, and if you never had the fortune of owning one, then you will be quite amazed at how intelligent, sensitive, comprehensive and communicative dogs can be. 

I’d rather not go too deep into the events that occur in the book for fear of spoiling it, but from the way I saw it, in the big scheme of things, Atticus had the bigger, more important role on this journey… he may even have been the reason Tom was able to go through with his plan in the first place.

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Tom Ryan Tom Ryan is the founder of the Undertoad newspaper, and came to the public's attention upon publishing Following Atticus, wherein he detailed the journey he undertook with his faithful dog to climb the 450 mountain peaks in America, some of several thousand feet. He was inducted into the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Hall of Fame after after raising thousands of dollars for the Angel Animal Medical Center located in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.