My Friend the Dog Quotes

“But a collie is like no other dog. Back in his brain ever lurks the queerly wise instinct, though never incurable savagery, of the olden wolves he sprang from.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“Then, slowly, very slowly, one of the two struggled from the unloving embrace and got, swaying and staggering and bleeding, to its feet. The other lay in a bloody torn huddle on the stony ground, its neck broken.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“The dog-show virus is as insidious and as potent as a Borgian poison. Once let man or woman fall under its spell, and the winning of a blue ribbon seems more important than the winning of a college degree. The purple Winner Rosette is worth a fortune. The annexation of the mystic prefix, “Champion,” to a loved dog’s name is an honor comparable to the Presidency.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“Fay calling weepingly to the dog. Toiling up the slope, she plunged forward under a low-hanging bough to grasp him. Her eyes were blurred with tears. Ronny’s were not. Thus it was that the collie, turning around at her call, saw what she missed seeing. He saw, and collie-like, he went into immediate action.

As she ran below the bough the top of her head brushed glancingly against something soft and yielding. It was a hornet nest as large as a derby hat—the abode of several hundred giant black hornets with white-barred tails.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“The dog’s plumed tail was smiting the dusty floor of the baggage car with happily resounding thumps as Abner talked to him. The man’s voice and intonation were such as an animal likes. The collie licked the calloused hand that stroked his silken head. Mutely, a bond of chumship was established between the dog-lonely man and the ill-treated dog.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“A hog is neither a safe nor an easy animal for a dog to manage. A drove of pigs, such as Colonel Theron kept in his east orchard and low bog lot, cannot be turned and controlled as can even the most recalcitrant cattle. A collie can learn with ease to avoid flying heels or tossing horns of a cow, and to nip or bark her into line. A hog is different.

There is something latently murderous about an unpenned hog, especially a hog that is accustomed to root for a living and to roam at will. The tough hide is hard to hurt by even the sharpest nip. The teeth are rendingly terrible. There is a vicious devil lurking behind the red-rimmed little pale eyes.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“Now, as the six rushed in, a silver-and-snow catapult landed among them from nowhere in particular, snarling, snapping, slashing.

No longer had Thor any use for the finesse which had been taught to him as part of his education as a herder. His master was down. These grunting devils were pressing in, avidly, to rip him to pieces. It was a moment for stark action.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“If you had had to live in the backwoods as I did – in the days when backwoods were really backwoods,” answered his father. “you’d know that a deer is the deadliest and most dangerous brute anywhere in this part of the country. They’ve got soft eyes and they’re nice to look at. But they’re devils, at heart, every one of them. I’d rather take my chances with a wounded bear than with a wounded deer. Any expert hunter would.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“Laund was oblivious to the fivefold punishment the very hint of which had hitherto been enough to send him ki-yi-ing under Danny’s bed. He was not fighting for himself, but for the child who was at once his ward and his deity.
On himself he was taking the torture that otherwise must have been inflicted on Danny. For perhaps the millionth time in the history of mankind and of dog, the Scriptural adage was fulfilled, and perfect love was casting out fear.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog

“It is the custom to sneer at mongrels and to feel shame in confessing the ownership of one of them. And there could not be a worse mistake. The mongrel has more cleverness, more stamina, and sometimes more beauty than any thoroughbred. The best type of mongrel is often the very best dog alive.

Instead of being ashamed of owning one, be ashamed that you have not brought out his million fine traits of smartness and stanchness and general worth-whileness. Those traits are all there if you’ll both to look for them.”
― Albert Payson Terhune, My Friend the Dog