“Losing those two longtime residents, it kind of reminds everybody of their own mortality. They were a more pleasant part of the building’s culture than some of the people.”

ARISTOTLE
Greek philosopher
(384-324 BC)

ASSYRIAN
TALISMANIC
DOG GUARDIAN
Terracota
North Palace at Nineveh, Iraq
Inscription, c. 645 B.C.

SIR FRANCIS
BACON
English author,
courtier
and philosopher
(1561 - 1626)

“The real arbiter of whether or not a being deserves respect and compassion is sentience. Being sensate to pleasures and especially to pains is the true currency of ethics.”

"I wanted to be buried with Charlie and Barney because the cemetery is a really nice place, with lovely scenery and lovely views. It's very well kept - it just shows that people really did care about their pets. It's a sad place but unlike in a "human" version, it is very uplifting. To see and know that these pets were loved and cherished enough to be respected in this way is very special.

"I don't have any family now - my dog Charlie has been my only companion for 15 years - so I haven't got anyone else to do the funeral for me."

LINA BASQUETTE
American Zigfiled Follies dancer, silent screen actress;
Great Dane breeder, pro handler, and AKC Judge
1907-1994

"So many get reformed through religion. I got reformed through Dogs."

"Any breeder that can’t provide a loving, in-home environment for a pregnant bitch, and a safe home environment surrounded by loving people for new born puppies, is exploitive. Anyone who breeds as a business rather than for the love of the breed is exploitive."

“Let Maine have its moose and Florida its manatees! In the heart of Manhattan, it takes a Dog to understand the beauty of autumn leaves, the thrill of new-fallen snow and the promise of flowers on a rainy spring day.”

CAROL LEA
BENJAMIN
Dog trainer and author

"He'd scotched the sunglasses along with any other accessory --bandanna, straw hat, Halloween costume -- I'd dreamed up. He hated them. He'd gone to a Halloween party as a nudist."

From "The Dog Is a Ham" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

“We lost our big dog Ripley of 11 years last year and I've been volunteer dog walking at the local Humane Society. One of my writing students fosters cats and calls it her spiritual practice. Same for me walking these dogs - loving them and letting them go . . . every week. Bringing a little joy to their lives, and savoring the light they bring into mine.”

"I'm not sure I could ever foster animals . . . maybe if I work up to it. Walking them at the Humane Society on Sunday morning (my church) is probably the best I can do; the man who trained me said that when he returns them to their habitat, he always says, 'I love you, and I hope I never see you again.'  That's always stayed with me."

“A Dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” ••• “Money will buy you a pretty good Dog but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.” ••• “There is no man so poor but what he can afford to keep a Dog.”

"When a puppy's eyes open it has a very strong ability to learn about people and ... this behavior persists throughout life. And surprisingly, most Dogs, given the choice, will actually prefer human company to other Dog company."
• • •
"You train your dog to toilet outside. You train your dog to sit on command. You should also train your dog to cope with being left alone."

GEORGE W. BUSH
45th U.S. President
b. 1946

“He never discussed politics and was always a faithful friend. He was always polite and never jumped in [heads of state's] laps,”

MARTIN
BUXBAUM
Author
1912-1991

"Loving, first, loving and gentle: loving as a Dog...."

Alice Liddell "Alice in Wonderland" Click √ on image to enlarge

"I lie on my burgundy velvet couch, smelly with Dog and hair everywhere, with Ralph and Bronwyn fighting for the curved space behind my legs or the soft pad of my belly, and I realize that I am happier than I have ever been."

From "The New Girl" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

ROBERT
COANE
Puerto Rican artist, teacher and Dog activist
b. 1945

(with Little Man Rodin)

"In the agony of death a Dog has been known to caress his master and everyone has heard of the Dog suffering under vivisection who licked the hand of the operator; this man, unless the operation was fully justified by an increase of our knowledge, or unless he had a heart of stone, must have felt remorse to the last hour of his life."
• • •
"It must be called sympathy that heads a courageous Dog to fly at anyone who strikes his master, as he certainly will."

RICHARD
DAWKINS
British ethologist, zoologist, Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologist and theorist and popular science author
(b. 1941)

“It’s all nonsense to say that you can’t love a dog as much as you love a human.”

• • •

“Who could not love dogs, they are such good sports?”

CLARENCE
DAY
American essayist
(1874–1935)

Q: “If you could choose what to come back as,
what would it be?”

A: A Dog, so my wife would love me more.”

“Let sleeping Dogs lie - who wants to rouse 'em?”

"It’s not much of a tail but I’m sort-of attached to it.”

“We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults.
Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical Canine attachment.”
•••
"Agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms."

ELLIOTT
ERWITT
French born American advertising and documentary photographer, filmmaker and author
(b. 1928)

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Dogs don’t mind being photographed in compromising positions.”

"For very little in food and Love, a dog will love you and guard you and your
belongings. Where else can you find this? Among Humans rarely...and, even if found, is it toally without strings? Nope! But with our canine friends, no betrayal ever, just mounds of Love and devotion!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spain, Amid Protests, Destroys Dog of Ebola-Infected Nurse
The Nerw York Times: Oct. 8, 2014
By RAPHAEL MINDER and PAM BELLUCK

Photo credit: GHONZALO ARROYO MORENO/Getty Images

MADRID — A dog named Excalibur who belonged to an Ebola-infected nurse was destroyed on Wednesday, even as protesters and animal rights activists surrounded the Madrid home of the nurse and her husband. An online petition calling for the dog’s life to be spared had drawn hundreds of thousands of signatures.

The nurse’s husband had pleaded publicly with officials in Madrid to change their minds about destroying the dog. He told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that there was no indication that Excalibur had been infected with Ebola.

The fate of the dog ignited a frenzy online. More than 390,000 people signed the petition to save his life. By comparison, about 150,000 people have signed a petition urging the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track research on a potential vaccine and treatment for Ebola.

Twitter erupted with pleas in both English and Spanish to save Excalibur’s life. Then, after Excalibur was killed, came posts using the hashtag #RIPExcalibur.

EXCALIBUR
Espada Tizona
de RODRIGO DÍAZ de VIVAR
El Cid Campeador

"Getting between a broker and his bonus is like getting between a Schnauzer and his lunch bowl. He may not bite you, but you are going to smell his breath."

"They should be allowing Dogs in more places --
Dogs in grocery stores, Dogs in hardware stores."

THEODORUS
GAZA

RANDY
GLASBERGEN
American cartoonist and humorous illustrator best known for the daily comic The Better Half.
(b. 1957)

"Dogs. Take them or leave them... but bear in mind that they are the only members of the animal kingdom who have bothered to make friends with humans...."

JOHN GROGAN
American journalist and non-fiction writer, Marley & Me
(b. 1957)

 

“Co-op boards are about controlling their environments, and they expect dogs to behave like well-trained little people.”

BENJAMIN HART
Director of the Center for Animal Behaviour
UC School of Veterinary Medicine, Davis

"Dogs don't lick people because they're hoping for a hot meal. They lick because we're their parents, or at least the head folks in the house. Even when Dogs are old, gray and grizzled, they see themselves in some ways as being our children, and a lick shows how much they respect us."

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."

“Smell tells time.... Perspective, scale and distance are, after a fashion, in olfaction — but olfaction is fleeting. . . . Odors are less strong over time, so strength indicates newness; weakness, age. The future is smelled on the breeze that brings air from the place you’re headed.”
•••
“One could say that dogs see the world faster than we do, but what they really do is see just a bit more world in every second.”
•••
“Wolves seem to learn from each other not by punishing each other but by observing each other. Dogs, too, are keen observers — of our reactions.”
•••
“Though they have inherited some aversion to staring too long at eyes, dogs seem to be predisposed to inspect our faces for information, for reassurance, for guidance.”

Ten Things My Dog Taught Me

1 • That if your paws are too big to fit in your ears,
you have to get someone else to do the scratching.
2 • That if you want your hand to be licked,
you might have to put it under somebody's nose.
3 • That the exact right Dog will always come into your life
when you need him most.
4 • That loving, in the face of inevitable loss,
is the single most important challenge of our lives.
5 • That all new habits,
like weeping and praying and talking about your feelings,
will actually endear you to more people than they will drive away.
6 • That sitting in the grass together doing nothing
isn't really doing nothing at all.
7 • That if you love somebody deeply enough,
cleaning up their diarrhea doesn't make you want to puke.
8 • That in the end, the money doesn't matter a bit.
9 • That sometimes, even if you haven't acted perfectly,
the good thing happens after all.
10 • That everything is forgivable, that every moment contains eternity,
and that loving unconditionally doesn't mean you are a self-annihilating fool.

...that lesson #10 is what every Dog has been trying to teach every human
since the very beginning of time.

From
"Ten Things My Dog Taught Me That Made It Possible for Me to Get Married"
in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

IRISH WOLFHOUND
Mascott of the
" Fighting 69th"

“A fine Dog it was, and a lucky Dog was I to purchase it."

The Jennings Dog

“Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has
to choose a relative.”

"If treadmills provided the kind of reinforcement that dogs do, we wouldn't have the obesity epidemic that we do."

"I'd rather see a portrait of a Dog that I know than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world."

"Men may come and go, but Dogs walk (and sniff) on forever."
•••
"Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty.
They depart to teach us about loss."
•••
"We try to replace them but never quite succeed. A new Dog never replaces an old Dog, it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many Dogs,
your heart is very big."
•••
"She anointeth my head with saliva."
•••
"In a world of hypocrisy and betrayal, Dogs are direct. They never lie."
•••
"Finally, a day came when she lay in her own pee and couldn't get up. We cried while the vet attached the pink plastic butterfly to her vein. We cried when the poison went in and she trustingly took the dose. Her eyes remained open. A terrible shudder shook her body. A whole chapter in my life closed."

From "A Woman's Best Friend" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

"When a Dog barks at the moon, then it is religion; but when he barks at strangers, it is patriotism!"

BEN JONSON
English dramatist
and poet
(1572–1637)

“Dogs are blameless, devoid of calculation, neither blessed nor cursed with human motives. They can’t really be held responsible for what they do.
But we can.”

From "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm"
•••
"But one thing is sure: When Donna dies, she will not be alone. Harry will be by her side, singing his own kind of song. She will leave this world feeling loved."

From "Donna and Harry" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

“He usually stays at home with the children. But the children are away on vacation and he gets very lonely. So I bring him down here and get pretty girls to take him for walks.”

RUDYARD
KIPLING
English writer
(1865–1936)

“His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.” ••• "Buy a Pup and your money will buy love unflinching."

The Australian DINGO

“No one shoots a wolf to keep from going hungry..., they have been brought back only to be killed again."

•••

Darcy at Her Days’ End
The New York Times: December 19, 2009
Editorial Notebook

Not quite 15 years ago, my wife adopted a mixed-breed puppy she found tied to a storage tank behind a gas station in Great Barrington, Mass. I say she adopted it because I wasn’t quite sold on the idea. We had a new pup already — a border terrier named Tavish — and this gangly new addition looked, in comparison, like a badly made dog. Darcy’s feet were too small for her body, her hind knees were weak, and her coat made her look like a wire-haired golden retriever. But who ever loved a dog less because it was ugly?

And now, suddenly, it’s all these years later. Darcy still lies on the lawn, basking like a lioness, and barks at the pickups going up the road. Much of the day she still has the look of an indomitably gratified mutt. But there are hours now when her eyes, a little misty with cataracts, seem worried, hollow. And she has stopped eating, or rather, she eats with deliberation and reluctance, a spoonful of this, a forkful of that.

Which means that now is the time for a hard decision. According to the vet, there are no signs of disease, other than the disease of age — nothing to force our hand. When Tavish died, four years ago, his liver was failing, and there was no choice but to sit on the floor and hold him while the vet inserted the final needle. It’s somehow not surprising that Darcy raises the matter of our responsibility in its purest form.

I’ve known too many owners who waited far too long to put their dogs to sleep, and I’ve always hated the sentimentality and the selfishness in their hesitation. Last week, watching Darcy out in the sun, it felt as though I was trying to decide just when most of the life — the good life, that is — inside her has been used up. Is it conscionable to wait until it’s plainly gone? Or is it better to err on the side of saying goodbye while she’s still discernibly Darcy, while she seems, as she nearly always does, to be without pain?

It comes down, in the end, to the pleasure she shows, the interest she takes in the world around her — and not to anything her humans feel. She has not had the life she might once have expected — a far better one instead. My job is to make sure she gets the death she deserves — in her human’s arms.

And so she has. She died quietly last Friday while I sat on the floor beside her at the vet’s. The world is a poorer place without her.

"Before you get a Dog, you can't quite imagine what living with one might be like; afterward, you can't imagine living any other way."
•••
"The Dog had introduced to her field of vision some previously unavailable hue and, without the Dog, that color was gone."
•••
"When I'm feeling bad or thinking about something I can't handle, I pick up my Dogs and it helps for the moment. It may not be the perfect relationship we all hope to have with a human, but it's a relationship. And love is love."

From "The Color Joy" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a Dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring, it was peace.”
•••
"The very beginning of Genesis tells us that god created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all creatures.  Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse.  There is no certainty that god actually did grant man dominion over other creatures.  What seems more likely, in fact, is that man invented god to sanctify the dominion that he had usurped for himself over the cow and the horse.  Yes, the right to kill a deer or a cow is the only thing all of mankind can agree upon, even during the bloodiest of wars."

See anything you like so far, something so... Fido, that perfect match to Fido,
so on the nose, so written just for him?

Visit
MATCH~ a ~POOCH
and let's see what we can come up with...

“And he’s housebroken – he’s broken every room in the house!”

"My Dog Chandi lives in the holy now. She daily instructs me, without words or lesson plans, in the meaning of the golden eternity, here and now, every single day. Divinity gleams in a Dog's eye."
•••
"Dogs teach us about faith, trust and devotion; how never to give up; and how to keep coming back and just showing up, which is more than half the battle. They teach us how to devotedly serve a higher master, how to attend and wait, and how to let go of a grudge. But most of all, they teach us about the meaning and experience of unconditional love."
•••
"In the presence of a Dog, you love and are loved.
And all that love helps purify our karma."
•••
"If there is any attachment worth holding on to, it is love of my Dog."

From "God Is Dog Spelled Properly" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

"Cave canem"

"Beware of the dog!"

“Cave canem, te necet lingendo” “Beware of the dog, he may lick you to death”

"No animal should ever jump up on the dining room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation."
"If you are a Dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater... suggest that he wear a tail.”

Q • Do you think cats and Dogs are capable of rational thought?

A • Rationality is generally located in the prefrontal cortex, and while that brain area is really big in humans, it’s a pretty small part of the Dog brain. This is why Dogs don’t play chess — they chase Frisbees.

Q • My Dog strikes me as basically rational, except when she barks at garbage bags.

A • Your poor Dog is like a 4-year-old, because 4-years-olds still don’t have a fully formed prefrontal cortex, which is the last part of the brain to develop.

Interview NYTimes Magazine by Deborah Solomon

“No animal I know of can consistently be more of a friend
and companion than a Dog.”

MAURICE
MAETERLINCK
(1862-1949)
Belgian Nobel laureate
Playwrite, Poet,
Essayist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the Dog, has made an alliance with us.”
•••
"In the world which we know, among the different and primitive geniuses that preside over the evolution of the several species, there exists not one, excepting that of the Dog, that ever gave a thought to the presence of man."
•••
"Ah, the dust-bin! Inexhaustable treasury,receptacle of windfalls,
the jewel of the house."
•••
"The Dog is the only living being that has found and recognizes an indubitable, tangible and definite god. He knows to whom above him to give himself. He has not to seek for a superior and infinite power."

ON THE BARKING DOG
"There is the great ancestral duty, the essential duty, which not even man's will and anger are able to check.

"All our humble history, linked with that of the Dog in our first in our first struggles against every breathing thing, tends to prevent his forgetting it. And when , in our safer dwelling-places of today, we happen to punish him for his untimely zeal, he throws us a glance of astonished reproach, as though to point out to us that we are in the wrong and that, if we lose sight of the main clause in the treaty of alliance which he made with us at the time when we lived in caves, forests and fens, he continues, he continues faithful to it in spite of us and remains nearer to the eternal truth of life, which is full of snares and hostile forces.

"But how much care and study are needed to succeed in fulfilling this duty! And how complicated it has become since the days of the silent caverns and great deserted lakes! It was all so simple then, so easy and s clear. The lonely hollow opened upon the side of the hill, and all that approached, all that moved on the horizon of the plains or woods, was the unmistakable enemy.

"...But today you can no longer tell... You have to acquaint yourself with a civilization of which you disapprove, to appear to understand a thousand incomprehensible things... Thus it seems evident that henceforth the whole world no longer belongs to the master, that his property conforms to unintelligible limits...

"It becomes necessary, therefore, to know exactly where the sacred domain begins and ends. Whom are you to suffer, whom to stop? ... There is the road by which everyone, even the poor, has the right to pass. Why? You do not know; it is a fact which you deplore, but which you are bound to accept.

"Fortunately, on the other hand, here is the fair path which none may tread. This path is faithful to the sound traditions; it is not to be lost sight of; for by it enter into your daily existence the difficult problems of life."

(from 'Our Friend The Dog')

THOMAS MANN
German writer
(1875–1955)

"The pure and simple joy that radiates out from our Dogs every time we come home is rarely duplicated in human greetings and it can elicit the feeling of pure love that we all seek from infancy onward."
•••
"But I doubt Luke has to practice meditating to be able to experience the kind of spiritual peace humans have to learn to find. Being nonverbal allows an otherwise intelligent, highly connected animal to live in the present without the hailstorm of internal conversations that complicate our human lives. If you think about it, most of what we 'talk' about in our own heads isn't about the present, it's about the past or future. But Dogs keep us firmly rooted in the here and now, and that, it turns out, is a notable accomplishment."

From "Love Is Never Having to Say Anything at All" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

THOMAS
McGUANE
American novelist
(b. 1939)

"My dogs are the only thing in the world I really trust. They're loyal and their love is unconditional. There's an honesty between me and my dogs. If I do anything bad, they're like: 'Here he goes—he's a freak.'" ••• "Please look after my dogs. Sorry, I love you. Lee." (from his suicide note on 11 February 2010)

Minter, Juice, and Callum

 

"A Dog is very religious and its religion is free from superstition. The god it believes in is its master, and that god actually exists, and is actually concerned about its welfare, and actually rewards it and punishes it, on a plan comprehensible to Dogs and meeting with their approval, for its virtues and vices. Dogs need not waste any time over insoluble theological problems. Their god is plainly visible and wholly understandable -- they have no need of clergy to guess for them, mislead them and get them into trouble."

••• "The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animals." ••• "Living with a Dog is easy - like living with an idealist."

 

“I think Dog ownership, or cohabitation, really, teaches you a lesson no matter what. For most people that lesson is about the way love and simplicity and togetherness can provide respite from the slings and arrows of our human days. For me, it’s about accepting Dave for who he is."

"I wonder what goes through his head when he sees us peeing
in his water bowl."

"It's not that no-kill is a better way; it's that stopping the killing is the only way.

"As long as the humane establishment accepts killing as a solution, there will never be a solution. And the sooner they take killing off the table, once and for all, the sooner the shelters will adopt the real solutions.

"And the sooner we take killing off the table as a means to relating to people whom we don't like, the sooner we'll bring an end to war
as a way of bringing about peace."

IRIS MURDOCH
British novelist
(b. 1919)

“A door is what a Dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.”
•••
"A dog's best friend is his illiteracy."

“You would have to look a long, long time to find a dishonest or cruel [Dog]. And the odds are that, if you did find one, it was made cruel or dishonest by the company it kept with humans. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly every [ Dog ] ... is pure of heart.”

Adapted from ‘One Horse Dies’, New York Times Editorial,
30 January 2007

"We do a lot of things — seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting — reasonably well but with nothing remotely resembling the acuity of creatures who do these things for a living."

Editorial: An Electrifying Ancestor
October 18, 2011

“Hunters want to kill wolves because wolves kill elk — and the human hunters want the elk. A second reason is a love of killing things. A third is an implacable, and unjustified, hostility to the wolf.”

Editorial: Wolf Season Begins
1 September 2009

"People also need to realize the responsibility they are taking on before they buy or adopt any dog. The dogs deserve a safe, caring and permanent home. (And, if it’s a shorthaired chihuahua going to the Northeast in winter, a sweater.)"

Editorial: Chihuahua Tale
14 December 2009

MALIA OBAMA
US President
Barack Obama's
daughter

EUGENE
O'NEILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I, SILVERDENE EMBLEM O'NEILL (familiarly known to my family, friends, and acquaintances as Blemie), because the burden of my years and infirmities is heavy upon me, and I realize the end of my life is near, do hereby bury my last will and testament in the mind of my Master. He will not know it is there until after I am dead. Then, remembering me in his loneliness, he will suddenly know of this testament, and I ask him then to inscribe it as a memorial to me.

I have little in the way of material things to leave. Dogs are wiser than men. They do not set great store upon things. They do not waste their days hoarding property. They do not ruin their sleep worrying about how to keep the objects they have, and to obtain the objects they have not. There is nothing of value I have to bequeath except my love and my faith. These I leave to all those who have loved me, to my Master and Mistress, who I know will mourn me most, to Freeman who has been so good to me, to Cyn and Roy and Willie and Naomi and -- But if I should list all those who have loved me, it would force my Master to write a book. Perhaps it is vain of me to boast when I am so near death, which returns all beasts and vanities to dust, but I have always been an extremely lovable dog.

I ask my Master and Mistress to remember me always, but not to grieve for me too long. In my life I have tried to be a comfort to them in time of sorrow, and a reason for added joy in their happiness. It is painful for me to think that even in death I should cause them pain. Let them remember that while no dog has ever had a happier life (and this I owe to their love and care for me), now that I have grown blind and deaf and lame, and even my sense of smell fails me so that a rabbit could be right under my nose and I might not know, my pride has sunk to a sick, bewildered humiliation. I feel life is taunting me with having over-lingered my welcome. It is time I said good-bye, before I become too sick a burden on myself and on those who love me. It will be sorrow to leave them, but not a sorrow to die. Dogs do not fear death as men do. We accept it as part of life, not as something alien and terrible which destroys life. What may come after death, who knows? I would like to believe with those of my fellow Dalmatians who are devout Mohammedans, that there is a Paradise where one is always young and full-bladdered; where all the day one dillies and dallies with an amorous multitude of houris, beautifully spotted; where jack rabbits that run fast but not too fast (like the houris) are as the sands of the desert; where each blissful hour is mealtime; where in long evenings there are a million fireplaces with logs forever burning, and one curls oneself up and blinks into the flames and nods and dreams, remembering the old brave days on earth, and the love of one's Master and Mistress.

I am afraid this is too much for even such a dog as I am to expect. But peace, at least, is certain. Peace and long rest for weary old heart and head and limbs, and eternal sleep in the earth I have loved so well. Perhaps, after all, this is best.

One last request I earnestly make. I have heard my Mistress say, "When Blemie dies we must never have another dog. I love him so much I could never love another one." Now I would ask her, for love of me, to have another. It would be a poor tribute to my memory never to have a dog again. What I would like to feel is that, having once had me in the family, now she cannot live without a dog! I have never had a narrow jealous spirit. I have always held that most dogs are good (and one cat, the black one I have permitted to share the living room rug during the evenings, whose affection I have tolerated in a kindly spirit, and in rare sentimental moods, even reciprocated a trifle). Some dogs, of course, are better than others. Dalmatians, naturally, as everyone knows, are best. So I suggest a Dalmatian as my successor. He can hardly be as well bred or as well mannered or as distinguished and handsome as I was in my prime. My Master and Mistress must not ask the impossible. But he will do his best, I am sure, and even his inevitable defects will help by comparison to keep my memory green. To him I bequeath my collar and leash and my overcoat and raincoat, made to order in 1929 at Hermes in Paris. He can never wear them with the distinction I did, walking around the Place Vendôme, or later along Park Avenue, all eyes fixed on me in admiration; but again I am sure he will do his utmost not to appear a mere gauche provincial dog. Here on the ranch, he may prove himself quite worthy of comparison, in some respects. He will, I presume, come closer to jack rabbits than I have been able to in recent years. And for all his faults, I hereby wish him the happiness I know will be his in my old home.

One last word of farewell, Dear Master and Mistress. Whenever you visit my grave, say to yourselves with regret but also with happiness in your hearts at the remembrance of my long happy life with you: "Here lies one who loved us and whom we loved."

“No matter how deep my sleep I shall hear you,
and not all the power of death can keep my spirit
from wagging a greatful tail.”

"Why, that dog is practically a Phi Beta Kappa. She can sit up and beg, and she can give her paw - I don't say she will, but she can."

•••

“You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.”

"I want to learn to love like this, the way we love our Dogs, with pride and enthusiasm and complete amnesia for faults. In short, to love others the way our Dogs love us."
•••
"When did mammals get confused? Who can't look at a baby and a puppy and see that there are some very marked differences? You can't leave babies at home alone with a chew toy when you go to the movies. Babies will not shimmy under the coves to sleep on your feet when you're cold. Babies, for all their unarguable charms, will not run with you in the park,wait by the door for you to return, and, as far as I can tell, know absolutely nothing of unconditional love."
•••
"I imagine there are people out there who got a Dog when what they wanted was a baby, but I wonder if there aren't other people who had a baby when all they rely needed was a Dog."

From "This Dog's Life" in DOG IS MY CO-PILOT

LAURENCE J.
PETER
Canadian educator and hierarchiologist
Formulated the
Peter Principle

 

“The capability they [Dogs] bring to the fight cannot be replicated by man or machine.”

"Dogs were used by artists in portraits to convey a wide range of subtle message and in various different symbolic roles, but their inclusion can, in many instances, be distilled to one simple reason -- they were beloved companions and, as such, it was a matter of course for them to be painted alongside their masters."

•••

“Very sad, had to have my beloved Lucy put to sleep. She is/was my black lab. I keep thinking I see her, perhaps I do. Anyway, it made me realise how I have never loved a man as much as I love my dogs! (apart from my dad)."

My pet.
My confidant.
My nap partner.
My co-conspirator.
My weekend plan.
My inspiration.
My favorite audience.
My higher caling.
My dinner companion.

My reason for getting up in the morning.

My passion.

"The Life of a good Dog is like the life of a good person,
only shorter and more compressed."

"The remedy for thirst?
It is the opposite of the one for a dog bite:
run always after a dog, he'll never bite you;
drink always before thirst, and it will never overtake you."

"Beneath the bed there was a contented munching and groaning sound. Gargantua, large of body but small of brain, was consuming an ox bone. Useless in the hunt, useless on the watch, he was born the size of a large lapdog, and since then had done nothing but eat and grow. No one knew when he would quit. But he was a devoted creature, so mother wouldn't let father get rid of him."

• • •

"But once over the bridge and past the trees,as I turned to say a last farewell to home and family, I saw a lolloping hound, nearly as big as a calf, running in pursuit. His tongue was hanging outand his great, ugly, spotted facewas frozen in an expression of foolish earernestness and utter adoration. It was Gargantua."

"The average Dog is a nicer person than the average person."

"Humans - who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals - have an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain..  A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential is we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them - without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret."

“Today I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend. Rocco trusted me and I failed him. He didn’t deserve this.”

Soap actor commits suicide after pup's 'forced' euthanasia
By JOSH SAUL
January 28, 2012

Click on NYPost banner for full story

"Recollect that the almighty, who gave the Dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit."
•••
"I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten to twelve years, what would it be if they were to double?"

ANDRÉS
SEGOVIA
Spanish guitarrist
(1893–1987)

"Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among god's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." THE PLANET OF THE APES

"Sir, he's a good Dog and a fair Dog. Can there be more said?
he is good, and fair."

• • •

“Cry 'Havoc', and let slip the dogs of war, that this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial”

• • •

Immortal gods, I crave no pelf;
I pray for no man but myself:
Grant I may never prove so fond,
To trust man on his oath or bond;
Or a harlot, for her weeping;
Or a Dog, that seems a-sleeping:
Or a keeper with my freedom;
Or my friends, if I should need 'em.
Amen.

“If you eliminate smoking and gambling, you will be amazed to find that almost all an Englishman’s pleasures can be, and mostly are, shared by his Dog.”

“I like a bit of Mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a Dog;
they're the best for everyday.”

“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm Happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?” ••• ”Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a Dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a Dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement."

“It’s hard to hide behind someone who’s vertical when you’re horizontal.” ••• “Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I feel very peculiar. I feel like I've just got to bite a cat! I feel like if I don't bite a cat before sundown, I'll go crazy! But then I just take a deep breath and forget about it. That's what is known as real maturity.” ••• “To live is to dance, to dance is to live.” ••• “Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves and then we have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes.I know what I need. I need more hellos.” ••• "All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn't a Dog."

“Sit happens.”

•••

“Sorry, we don't do husbands, wives or kids.”

"I know this much: My Dog, Leo, who once had a modeling job and wrecked the set and stole the director's steak, hasn't earned a dime since, but he is still worth a million bucks."

•••

“So you see, it’s not that President Obama didn’t want to send Hillary in to do what she was hired to do. It’s just that, when you deal with a rat [Kim Sung-Il], you send in a Hound Dog [Bill Clinton].”

GERTRUDE
STEIN

"I've seen the look in Dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I'm convinced that Dogs think humans are nuts."
••• “Sir, this is a unique Dog. He does not live by tooth or fang. He respects the right of cats to be cats although he doesn't admire them. He turns his steps rather than disturb an earnest caterpillar. His greatest fear is that someone will point out a rabbit and suggest that he chase it. This is a Dog of peace and tranquility.”

 

“Without Dogs, how would we get rid of that new car smell?”

 

"Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses."

"They're our creatures, they're just everything."
•••
"They have an innocence and a goodness because they're not ambitious."
•••
"Dogs want to love their people and actors need to love their audience.
Dogs have all the empathetic qualities that a good actor should have."

JOHN UNGER
&
SCHOEP