The Dog Quotes

“At the man’s heels trotted a dog, a big native husky, the proper wolf dog, gray-coated and without any visible or temperamental difference from its brother the wild wolf. The animal […] knew that it was no time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than the man’s judgment.”

“It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man’s heels. ”

“The dog was disappointed and yearned back toward the fire. This man did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold one hundred and seven degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge”

“It was ... time to lie snug in a hole ... and wait for a curtain of cloud to be drawn across the face of ... space. ”

“The only caresses it had ever received were the caresses of the whip-lash and of harsh and menacing throat-sounds that threatened the whip-lash. ”

“And all the while the dog sat and watched him, a certain yearning wistfulness in its eyes, for it looked upon him as the fire provider, and the fire was slow in coming. ”

“Later the dog whined loudly. And still later it crept close to the man and caught the scent of death. This made the animal bristle and back away. A little longer it delayed, howling under the stars that leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold sky. Then it turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food providers and fire providers. ”

“This is what happened to dogs who tried to live in the world without people—they became beaten down, defeated, starved.”

“As for me: I loyally remained right where I was, remembering the first time I had ever seen the boy and then just now, the very last time—and all the times in between.”

“Her sadness came off her and washed into me, and I pulled against the noose, wanting to go comfort her.”

“One of my favorite things to do was to learn new tricks, as the boy called them, which consisted of him speaking to me in encouraging tones and then feeding me treats.”

“If I was such a good dog, why was I being abandoned by my owner?”

“The boy needs a family around him while he rebuilds.”

“I knew who he was: I would recognize that scent anywhere. Unmistakably Ethan. I’d found the boy.”

“My purpose, my whole life, had been to love him and be with him, to make him happy.”

“Dogs have important jobs, like barking when the doorbell rings, but cats have no function in a house whatsoever.”

“I understood it now, why I had lived so many times. I had to learn a lot of important skills and lessons, so that when the time came I could rescue Ethan, not from the pond but from the sinking despair of his own life.”

“I didn’t want to cause any unhappiness now—in that way, I decided it was probably better that he wasn’t here to see this, though I missed him so much at that moment the ache of it was as bad as the strange pains in my belly.”

“I realized that today I truly understood my purpose as Ellie: not just to Find people but to save them.

“It was starting to seem to me that just when I had life all figured out it changed.”

″‘No!’ Mom or Ethan would shout when I wet the floor. ‘Good boy!’ they’d sing when I peed in the grass. ‘Okay, that’s good,’ they’d say when I urinated on the papers. I could not understand what in the world was wrong with them.”

“I had fulfilled my purpose and there was no reason for me to be a dog anymore. So whether it happened this summer or the next didn’t matter. Ethan, loving Ethan, was my ultimate purpose, and I had done it as well as I could. I was a good dog.”

“I guess I had never bothered to consider that there might such a thing as a boy, but now that I had found one, I thought it was just about the most wonderful concept in the world. He smelled of mud and sugar and an animal I’d never scented before, and a faint meaty odor clung to his fingers, so I licked them.”

“I felt anger and fear and pain coming from him, but I didn’t back away, I stayed right there, and knew I had done the right thing when he buried his face in my neck and cried some more.”

“When I thought about Jakob, I realized that his cold dedication to Find helped me get over my separation from Ethan—there was no time for grieving. I had too much work to do.”

“He crept over to the doghouse and arranged the blanket on the thin pad inside. I climbed in next to him—we both had two feet sticking out the door. I put my head on his chest, sighing, while he stroked my ears. ‘Good dog, Bailey,’ he murmured.”

“On the crest of the hill she saw him, a dark sleek form springing up from the grass like a bird startled from its nest. But the dog was not startled. It came towards her with sureness and speed, leaping up at her as she called its name. ‘Thunderwith, my beauty.’ She welcomed it with open arms. ‘My magic dog. Your are here. You’re not a dream at all. You’re here waiting for me.’ She buried her face in its coat and stood quietly for a minute.”