The Heart of a Dog

“All dogs die too soon. Many humans don't die soon enough. A dog is only a dog. And a dog is too gorgeously normal and wholesome to be made ridiculous in death by his owner's sloppy sentimentality.””

— Albert Payson Terhune

“Again and again he would lie down at her feet; only to waken presently with a thunderous growl and a snarl, and with a lunge of bared teeth at her caressing hand. The hand would continue to caress; and his show of fury was met with a laugh and with a comment:"You've had a good sleep, and now you've waked up in a nice homicidal rage.””

— Albert Payson Terhune

“The Master talked of buying a whalebone-and-steel-and-snow bull terrier, or a more formidable if more greedy Great Dane. But the Mistress wanted a collie. So they compromised by getting the collie.””

— Albert Payson Terhune

“Ferris was infected with the most virulent form of that weird malady as "dog-showitis." At first he had been tempted solely by the hope of winning the hundred-dollar prize. But latterly the urge of victory had gotten into his blood. And he yearned, too, to let the world see what a marvelous dog was his.””

— Albert Payson Terhune

“Never before, in all the Westminster Club’s forty-odd shows, had such a collie been led into the ring. Eugenie breeding, wise rationing and tireless human care had gone to the perfecting of other dogs. But Mother Nature herself made Lochinvar Bobby what he was. She had fed him bountifully upon the all-strengthening ration of the primal beast; and she had given him the exercise-born appetite to eat and profit by it. Her pitiless winter winds had combed and winnowed his coat as could no mortal hand, giving it thickness and length and richness beyond belief. And she had molded his growing young body into the peerless model of the Wild.Then, because he had the loyal heart of a collie and not the incurable savagery of the wolf, she had awakened his soul and made him bask rapturously in the friendship of a true dog-man. The combination was unmatchable.””

— Albert Payson Terhune

“Oblivious of Harlow, for whom they had all a dog's amusedly tolerant contempt for an inefficient human leader, the quintet swept away on the track.””

— Albert Payson Terhune