A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set Quotes

“It wasn’t as much fun as being a doodle dog, but I now knew why these creatures, these human beings, had so fascinated me from the moment I saw them. It was because my fate was inextricably linked with theirs.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“The rust-colored dog was named Pepper, I soon gathered, and as we walked we stopped at more places and soon had a brown female dog named Sally and a hairy, stocky male dog named Beevis, all on leashes in a most unnatural dog family.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“There are other dogs who need help. Rescue is like a river; it has to keep flowing. Otherwise even more dogs would die.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“The mother is a Chihuahua. The father, we’re thinking Yorkie.” “Max, you’re a Chorkie!” CJ smiled down at me.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“I wagged my tail so the person would know I wasn’t serious about all the barking; I was just doing my job.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“I was singing! I had my earbuds in! What are you doing home? What’s in the bag?” “I forgot something. It’s, um, dog food. We’re having a food drive at school.” “Do you really think it looks good to give dog food?” “Mo-ther. It’s not for the people. It’s for their dogs.” “You mean to tell me they can’t afford to feed themselves, but they have dogs? What’s this country coming to?” “Are you getting laundry? I’ll help you fold,” Clarity said. “Let’s take it upstairs.” They went up the stairs, leaving me alone again. I was really, really hungry.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Clarity was looking down and seemed unhappy, so I put my paws on her chest and tried to lick her face. In my experience, being licked by a dog can cheer up just about anybody.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“The sharp pain I felt when I thought about how much I missed the boy was just something to get used to: a dog’s job was to do what people wanted.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“You be a good dog, Spike!” Senora called over to him. I looked jealously in the new dog’s direction, but his reaction to having his name spoken was to glance over as if it were nothing at all. Toby, I wanted her to say. Good dog, Toby. Instead she said, “There are no bad dogs, Bobby, just bad people. They just need love.” “Sometimes they’re broke inside, senora. And nuthin’ will help ’em.” Senora’s hand absently reached down and scratched behind Coco’s ears. I frantically shoved my nose underneath Senora’s fingers,”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“It was the first time in a long while that I thought about how small a dog I was as Max. It did not seem right that a dog should be the same size as a duck.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Sneakers had her own house! I didn’t understand it but thought maybe it had something to do with the way Duke was always harassing her when CJ would leave the three of us alone. Perhaps to protect Sneakers CJ found this new house at the top of all the stairs, a place where the cat would be safe. Now I was being shown that this was where Sneakers lived, and soon we’d be going back home to Duke, who would smell Sneakers on me—I wondered what he would conclude from that! Would he figure out that CJ and I had been to Sneakers’ house?”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“CJ left, which I did not like at all, but the Vet petted me and I fell into a sleep so deep I lost all track of time. When I awoke, it was morning and I was in a cage, wearing a stupid, stiff collar that surrounded my face and funneled all noises and smells directly into my senses. Again, was all I thought to myself. I had long given up trying to understand why people liked to put their dogs in such ridiculous situations.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“I stared down with contempt at the big dog, who was watching forlornly. He might get to go for walks with CJ, but she would never pick him up for a cuddle.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“though this dog, like so many others in this place, was gigantic. That’s when it occurred to me: it wasn’t that the people and the dogs were huge; it was that I was little. I was a tiny little dog! I had met tiny dogs in my life, of course. But I had never before considered that I might be one—I had always been large, because people sometimes need the protection a large dog affords them.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it. I told her if anything ever happens to Molly again I’m going to write a book about how I was forced to run away because my mother was a dog abuser and I’m going to self-publish it and go on a national book tour. That gave her something to think about.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“She got into bed with the lights on, holding a book. Books are okay to chew on, though they are fairly tasteless and it always makes people unhappy when a dog does so. They are one of those toys that dogs aren’t supposed to play with.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“See the dog in the mirror?” CJ asked. I heard the word “dog” and figured she wanted me to go through the door. I walked in and immediately stopped dead: there was a dog in there! It looked like Rocky. I bounded forward, then pulled back in surprise as it jumped aggressively at me. It was not Rocky—in fact, it didn’t smell like any dog at all. I wagged my tail and it wagged. I bowed down and it bowed down at the same time. It was so strange, I barked. It looked like it was barking, too, but it didn’t make a noise. “Say hi, Molly! Get the dog!” CJ said. I barked some more, then approached, sniffing. There was no dog, just something that looked like a dog. It was very strange. “You see the dog, Molly? See the dog?” Whatever was going on, it wasn’t very interesting. I turned away, smelling under the bed, where there were dusty shoes.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Stella, Tinkerbell, and Emmet. Why on earth would a woman want three cats?”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Sometimes we went to town to the dog park, and while I was always glad to see the other dogs, I thought the younger ones were juvenile with their relentless playing and wrestling.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“By the time we got home, Grandma would be cooking breakfast, and Grandpa always slipped me something under the table—bacon, ham, a piece of toast. I learned to chew silently so that Grandma wouldn’t say, “Are you feeding the dog again?” The tone in her voice when I picked up the word “dog” suggested to me that Grandpa and I needed to keep the whole operation quiet.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“I was curled up on the floor, with Felix the kitty sleeping up against me. I’d given up trying to shove him away; Felix apparently thought I was his mother, which was insulting, but he was a cat and therefore, in my opinion, completely brainless.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Full of manic energy, I burst past him and skittered around in the house, leaping over furniture. I spotted Smokey and took off in pursuit, chasing him up the stairs and barking when he dove under Mom and Dad’s bed. “Bailey!” Mom called to me sternly. “Bad dog, Bailey,” the boy said crossly. I was astounded at this false accusation. Bad? I’d been accidentally locked in the garage but was more than willing to forgive them. Why were they scowling at me like that, shaking their fingers at me?”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“The way he was speaking to me reminded me of the first time Senora called me Toby. I instantly understood what was happening—just as the men had pulled my first family from the culvert, this man had taken me from the grass. And now my life would be what he decided it would be.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“There was something wrong with this man. He didn’t call me Toby. He didn’t even talk to us. I thought of my first mother, the very last time I saw her, escaping the Yard because she couldn’t live with humans, not even with someone as loving as Senora. But the man didn’t love us at all.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Unbidden, the sadness I’d felt from Senora washed through me, and I wanted to squirm up to her and lick her palms and make her happy again. Of all the things I’d ever done, making Senora laugh seemed the most important. It was, I reflected, the only thing that gave my life any purpose.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“I was put in the cage, and Mother sniffed disapprovingly at the woman’s smell, which had been pressed into my fur. With a lurch, the truck started up again, and I was quickly distracted by the wonderful odors flowing through the cage as we moved down the road. I was riding in a truck! I barked in delight, Fast and Mother jerking their heads in surprise at my outburst. I couldn’t help myself; it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened in my whole life, including almost catching the frog. Fast seemed overcome with sadness, and it took me a moment to understand: Sister, his favorite companion, was gone, as lost to us as was Hungry. There was, I reflected, much more complexity to the world than I had supposed. It wasn’t just about Mother and my siblings hiding from people, hunting, and playing in the culvert. Larger events had the ability to change everything—events that were controlled by human beings.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“Occasionally I even saw a dog in a car! The first time this happened I stared in wonderment at his head hanging out the window, tongue lolling out. He barked joyously when he spotted me, but I was too astounded to do anything but lift my nose and sniff in disbelief. Cars and trucks were something else Mother evaded, though I didn’t see how they could be dangerous if there were sometimes dogs inside them. A large, loud truck came around frequently and took away all the bags of food people left out for us, and then meals would be scarce for a day or two. I didn’t like that truck, nor the greedy men who hopped off it to scoop up all the food for themselves, despite the fact that they and their truck smelled glorious.”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set

“By this time, Fast and Sister had both grown larger than I—my body was the same size, but my legs were shorter and stubbier. Hungry was the runt of the litter, of course, and it bothered me that Fast and Sister always abandoned me to play with each other, as if Hungry and I belonged together out of some sort of natural order in the pack. Since Fast and Sister were more interested in each other than the rest of the family, I punished them by depriving them of my company, going off by myself deep into the culvert. I was sniffing at something deliciously dead and rotten one day when right in front of me a tiny animal exploded into the air—a frog!”
― W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set