Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Will's Red Coat: The Story of One Old Dog Who Chose to Live Again
    Will's Red Coat: The Story of One Old Dog Who Chose to Live Again
    Will's Red Coat: The Story of One Old Dog Who Chose to Live Again
    Audiobook8 hours

    Will's Red Coat: The Story of One Old Dog Who Chose to Live Again

    Written by Tom Ryan

    Narrated by Tom Ryan

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A true story of acceptance, perseverance, and the possibility of love and redemption as evocative, charming, and powerful as the New York Times bestseller Following Atticus.

    Drawn by an online post, Tom Ryan adopted Will, a frightened, deaf, and mostly blind elderly dog, and brought him home to live with him and Atticus. The only owners Will ever knew had grown too fragile to take care of themselves, or of him. Ultimately, Will was left at a kill shelter in New Jersey.

    Tom hoped to give Will a place to die with dignity, amid the rustic beauty of the White Mountains of his New Hampshire home. But when Will bites him numerous times and acts out in violent displays, Tom realizes he is in for a challenge.

    With endless patience and the kind of continued empathy Tom has nurtured in his relationship with Atticus, Will eventually begins to thrive. Soon, the angry, hurt, depressed, and near-death oldster has transformed into a happy, gamboling companion with a puppy-like zest for discovery. Will perseveres for two and a half years, inspiring hundreds of thousands of Tom and Atticus’s fans with his courage, resilience, and unforgettable heart.

    A story of a dog and an indelible bond that is beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting, and unforgettable, Will’s Red Coat honors the promise held in every living creature, at any stage of life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 25, 2017
    ISBN9780062564443
    Author

    Tom Ryan

    Tom Ryan served as publisher and editor of the Newburyport, Massachusetts, newspaper The Undertoad for more than a decade. In 2007 he sold the newspaper and moved to the White Mountains of New Hampshire with miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch. Over the last five years, Tom and Atticus have climbed more than 450 four-thousand-foot peaks.

    More audiobooks from Tom Ryan

    Related to Will's Red Coat

    Related audiobooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      To Force The Issue–or Not

      Sep 1, 2019

      To Force The Issue–or Not
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Tim Lane

      Dec 8, 2021

      We stopped at the Topaz Internment Camp, where my wife’s family was held during World War II, near the tiny town of Delta, Utah. We found the apocalyptic remnants of one of our country’s great shames. The post A Year in Reading: Tim Lane appeared fi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Into the Wild

      Feb 28, 2019

      Into the Wild
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Inherited Imagination

      Aug 18, 2020

      The Inherited Imagination
      9 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      I met the Bishop on the roadand much said he—same old porridgeI heard as a child, my little bodya “foul sty.” “Love has pitched his mansion.” MaybeLove pitched her silken tent.Love has raised its dwelling inthe place of reproduction, which can be fit

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      Day after Thanksgiving. I give thanks for Eveto beat the rush of appreciating hernext year and let her sleep inuntil three hundred o’clock.Thank you light on the mountainfor being my star on cloudy nights.Thank you all the guns I’ve never ownedand ki

      6 min read

    • Article

      I Ran Away From Home At 60!

      Feb 20, 2024

      Three decades ago, I celebrated my 30th birthday in the time-honoured tradition of all young people who think they are an adult but have no real idea about life, duty or personal responsibility – I got smashed. In fairness, I had quite a lot to get s

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Marie-Helene Bertino

      Dec 10, 2020

      Both books imagine then endanger tender, delicate bodies and listen only to their own strange pulses against the universe. The post A Year in Reading: Marie-Helene Bertino appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      This Is Not a Defense of the Power of Art

      Jan 25, 2018

      If you’ve never cried while reading a book or watching a movie, this essay isn’t for you. There are only three times I remember out and out weeping in response to either: As a child on the roof of my mother’s house, in my wife’s and my first apartmen

      8 min read

    • Article

      Worlds Of Ink And Paper

      Nov 22, 2022

      As a young girl, I still remember my dear mother, smile on her face, curled up with Family Circle magazine in her lap. She was engrossed in an article titled “Butternut Wisdom,” written by Gladys Taber. At my age, it didn’t mean a thing to me. But as

      6 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jan 1, 2023

      I wanted something in my heart like a drum.Peaches fell from trees.Suddenly: monsoon season.So, I told myself a storyto soothe myself into a kind of slumbernot like the wrestling recently begunnot like the wager life seems hell-benton becoming. Meanw

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Beautiful Unforeseen

      Sep 2, 2022

      The Beautiful Unforeseen
      9 min read

    • Article

      As the World Collapses

      Jul 27, 2017

      As the World Collapses
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Dustin Kurtz

      Dec 23, 2019

      Chalk it up in the How Books Are Bad column, I guess: They shore you up as a reading subject instead of letting you blur out. What a misdeed. The post A Year in Reading: Dustin Kurtz appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Eternal Adventure

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Eternal Adventure
      4 min read

    • Article

      Librarians of the 21st Century: Worst Story Time Ever? (Or Best?)

      Mar 14, 2017

      Librarians, at cocktail parties and at work, are often asked whether anyone uses libraries anymore. This oblivious question has led many in the profession to insist, in marketing campaigns and in interviews, that libraries are “more than just books.”

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Will's Red Coat

    4.5/5

    26 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I discovered this book by chance on Scribd. As a dog lover who has had to say goodbye to a number of beloved dogs, I was anticipating a tear-jerker of a story of loving and losing an old dog, and I was fine with that. What I didn’t anticipate was a meditation on being at peace with nature, finding joy in acts of kindness, the power of unsurrendering love, and discovering deep satisfaction in the simplest things in life: friendship, compassion and kindness.

      I’m sure the book in print would have been moving, but Mr. Ryan’s rendition is so full of feeling that it adds another level of enjoyment and empathy. Having spent a short time in the white Mountains many years ago myself, I enjoyed the local color and Mr. Ryan’s New Hampshire twang.

      The chapter on Will’s death was so poignant I had to listen in short segments, and when I got to the book’s conclusion I was sorry it had to end. Thank you for sharing your beautiful friends and loving experiences with the rest of us!
    • 5/5
      Awesome book! Fascinating story and how the author was revealed. Definitely add to my list
    • 5/5
      For anyone who is a dog lover, you will fall in love with Will. Although, Will may be the star of this book, I fell in love with Atticus, Tom, and Aragorn as well. I absolutely loved that Mr. Ryan decided to take a chance on Will. I could understand his hesitation in the beginning after meeting Will and wanting to give him back. A lot of people would have done so. Yet, I think the reason that Will fought so hard and lived was because he had finally experienced what true love was with Mr. Ryan and Atticus. If you asked Atticus he would not admit it out loud that he did love Will as well. It was easy to see how people became so inspired by Will. He was such an admirer of flowers. I knew going into this book that I was going to find myself crying but I did not realize just how overcome with emotions I would get when Will's time had come. The moments with Will surround by a house full of flowers, Aragorn saying good bye to Will, the one last mountain top hike, and the last rose flowing down the river. A must read for all dog lovers. Yet, be prepared to have the tissues ready.
    • 4/5
      A very sweet book about Tom and his sidekick Atticus (hero of an earlier book: [Following Atticus]) as they "adopt" Will, a very sick abandoned miniature schnauzer. Will came to Tom and Atticus nearly blind, and totally deaf as well as barely able to walk for himself due to arthritis and who knows what else. Tom nurses Will as if he were a millionaire able to hire the best and most selfless of servants. The little dog recovers a good life, and Tom finds a new spiritual understanding of how being a servant in life is the best of discoveries. I recommend the book to those who love dogs, and who understand the spiritual side of all life, human, animal and plants.