Quotations

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Dog Quotes

"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." - Milan Kundera

"To err is human, to forgive, canine." - Unknown

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive." - Gilda Radner

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Unknown

"No Matter how little money and how few possessions, you own, having a dog makes you rich." - Louis Sabin

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us." - Robert Louis Stevenson

"My little dog---a heartbeat at my feet." - Edith Wharton

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." - Unknown

"No man can be condemned for owning a dog. As long as he has a dog, he has a friend; and the poorer he gets, the better friend he has." - Will Rogers

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." - Ben Williams

The dog is the god of frolic. - Henry Ward Beecher

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." - Roger Caras

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool
of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you,
but he will make a fool of himself too." - Samuel Butler

If Dogs Were Teachers

If dogs were teachers you would learn stuff like.....

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.

When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.

Take naps. Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout...run right back and make friends.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough.

Be Loyal

Never pretend to be something you're not.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

Cat Quotes

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats"

-Albert Schweitzer

"Time spent with cats is never wasted." -Colette

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece." -Leonardo Da Vinci

"How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven."

-Robert A. Heinlein

"You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats." - Colonial American proverb

"Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. " ~ Robertson Davies

"Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want." -Joseph Wood Krutch

Couldn't find any bird or fish (or pet iguana!) sentiments.

If you know of any, please send me an email !

The poem below (abridged) is one of my favourites:

The Darkling Thrush

I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-gray,

And Winter's dregs made desolate

The weakening eye of day.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky

Like strings of broken lyres,

And all mankind that haunted nigh

Had sought their household fires....

At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead

In a full-hearted evensong

Of joy illimited;

An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,

In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through

His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware.

-- Thomas Hardy

Butterfly

In memory of my long-time companion,

Jelly-Bean

(1985-2001)

by George Graham Vest - c. 1855

"The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.

A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.

When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world,
friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies.

And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way,
there by the graveside will the noble dog be found,
his head between his paws, his eyes sad,
but open in alert watchfulness,
faithful and true even in death."

George Graham Vest (1830-1904) served as U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1879 to 1903 and became one of the leading orators and debaters of his time. This speech is from an earlier period in his life when he practiced law in a small Missouri town. It was given in court while
representing a man who sued another for the killing of his dog. When his turn came to present a summation to the jury, he made the above speech and won the case.

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