In the years we have owned dogs, there have been countless times when I wondered what the dog was thinking and feeling or why he or she engaged in a particular behavior. Since we’ve always had cats with our dogs, I have wondered just as many times what our various dogs thought about the cats. And, of course, I’ve wondered what our dogs have thought of us.
W. Bruce Cameron has answered some of those question with his delightful book, A Dog’s Purpose. It’s the story of one dog’s spiritual evolution through several lifetimes, told from the dog’s point of view. As with humans, the dog’s name and circumstances change from life to life.
He begins his first life in a litter born in the wild, where he and his litter mates are eventually taken to a chaotic dog rescue place. Here, he’s named Toby and learns how to exist in the Yard, a fenced area, with other rescued dogs. Cameron captures the pecking order in such a situation and does it in a way that instantly pulls you into the emotional texture of Toby’s life. When Toby’s mother escapes from the rescue place, you feel what Toby feels, betrayal, bewilderment, fear. When Toby is attacked by Spike, the local bully, you feel Toby’s horror and pain. You also feel what Toby feels when his leg is damaged beyond repair and he’s euthanized.
Toby is reborn as a golden retriever, and this lifetime really spoke to me; we own a golden now – Noah – and before him, owned another golden, Jessie. Both were rescue dogs. In this life, Toby’s name in Bailey and after an iffy start, he ends up with a family whose young son, Ethan, is definitely his human. Bailey recalls his life as Toby, when he was always trying to define his purpose, and that quest continues in his life as Bailey.
“Living in the Yard has taught me how to escape through a gate. It had led me straight to the boy, and loving and living with the boy was my whole purpose in life. From the second we woke up until the moment we went to sleep, we were together.”
Bailey’s life has plenty of drama in it – a run-in with a skunk at the farm that Ethan’s grandparents own, a neighborhood bully tries to poison him, he and Ethan gets lost for several days in the woods, Ethan’s father doesn’t particularly like him. After the family cat dies, Ethan buys his mother a new kitten and Bailey’s reaction had me laughing out loud:
“He had no manners whatever and attacked my tail when I sat down often lunged out at me from behind the couch, batting at me with his tiny paws. When I tried to play with him, he wrapped his legs around my nose and bit me with his sharp teeth.” And his opinion on cats generally? “Dogs have important jobs, like barking when the doorbell rings, but cats have no function in a house whatsoever.”
Cameron is such a skillful writer that I was drawn fully into Bailey’s timeless life. He always refers to Ethan as the boy even when Ethan is college bound and has a girlfriend. Bailey has dog friends, too, like Duchess, who lives in the neighborhood. One evening, Bailey heads over to Duchess’s house to see if she can play, but there wasn’t any sign of her “other than a fairly recent patch of urine-soaked snow. I thoughtfully lifted my leg on the area so she’d know I was thinking of her.”
Passages like that one leads me to believe that while Cameron was writing this novel, he entered that magical place all novelists strive for, where you are so plugged into your character and your story that it’s as if you’re channeling. And now, I must return to Bailey. I’ve peeked ahead and know there’s at least one more life for this extraordinary soul.
We had a “MaCat” (for so many litters; she was feral but lived here until we managed to pick her up and get her to the vet for spaying, then she became very tame!). MaCat and my then canine companion yellow Lab LadyGirl were close buddies. Whenever MaCat went on a hunt, which was often, she left LadyGirl in charge of even her youngest kittens. LadyGirl was the babysitter, and they crawled all over her. LadyGirl and MaCat were so soul-connected that they died within two weeks of each other.We now have a tuxedo feline named Thoth, who is pals with Sunshine. Thoth goes on our walks and doies his business when Sunshine does hers. The neighbors all get a real hoot out of watching the dog and cat strolling down the street and doing their business together! And no, Thoth isn’t on a leash. he just follows alongside. So cats and dogs are not natural enemies, as many believe. I often found myself wondering where MaCat and LadyGirl had been together in a different lifetime, as they surely must. Have ordered this book! 🙂
“It had led me straight to the boy, and loving and living with the boy was my whole purpose in life. From the second we woke up until the moment we went to sleep, we were together.” That sums up my favourite ever dog (Toby) and my son.
Toby would go upstairs at night with Darren and stay at his bedside until he was asleep, only then would he make his way downstairs. In the morning he would be upstairs again waiting patiently for him to wake up.
Happy days. Oh yes, the book! Sounds great, yet another for my list.
Toby sounds like he’s right out of this novel!
Sounds like a great book, although, as a life time cat person (I recently got to hang out with an ocelot ) I disagree with the dog’s opinion of cats.
glad to see that you are not underwater………..
I disagree, too. We’ve got 3 cats and all the dogs we’ve had have gotten along well with cats.
Looks like isaac is closing in on NO.
Sounds wonderful. A great gift idea for the dog lovers in one’s life, of which I have many.
Onto my ipad it went! It really is a beautiful story.
this sounds like such an incredibly wonderful book – love that it’s from the dog’s perspective – no doubt animals go through reincarnation, just as we humans do –
neat story cj –
The art of racing in the art alluded to reincarnation in dogs, too, at the end. But this book does it so well.
Oh, I can’t wait to read this book! And what strange timing….I awakened this morning from a dream in which I had adoped two dogs from a shelter. One was a small black and white terrier-type dog, and I would never intentionally adopt a small dog, as I love the larger breeds, (although my parents had a Fox Terrier named “Rebel”). The other dog in my dream was a black Great Dane, and I’ve owned and raised several Danes. In the dream, the little dog was always at a distance from me, but the Dane was MY dog, and was almost literally joined to me at the hip. In the dream, the NAMES were of huge importance. I kept thinking of different names for each of the dogs, but especially the Dane. At one point, weirdly, I named him “Montana” (???????), and finally settled on the name “Storm”. I woke up in Alpha, thinking that Storm would be appropriate, because my canine soulmate companion now is Sunshine and is the color of Sunshine, and a black Dane could very appropriately be named “Storm”. As I came awake, Storm was laying right up against me and I was petting him and talking to him. (As an aside, I had several dreams about Sunshine before I found her…or she found me…..and even dreamed her name.) Then this morning after my dog dream I came to the computer and read the post and went WOW!!!!!!! Now I MUST get that book! I absolutely have the conviction that animals reincarnate just as do humans. I sense having been with Sunshine in the past, and have felt the same about several other of my canine companions….that we are continuing our journeys together. Sunshine was my black Great Dane in GA, whose name was “Cochise”. He died of a heart attack while happily chasing a female dog, but I was devastated. He came back to me as Sunshine. No one can convince me otherwise. I see it in her eyes. She doesn’t belong to me. I belong to her. That’s very apparent. She isn’t my dog. I’m her human. I’m clear on this. 🙂
The book is wonderful. And there’s a sequel!