Primates feel pure, flat immobility as boredom. But dogs feel it as peace.

Dogs are a window on the natural world.

As far as I'm concerned, I own my dogs as I own my body. My legs are with me when I take a shower, and I feel no shame. If I were to lose one, I'd grieve, and people would send sympathy cards, but it would be my condition that evoked the sympathy, not the fate of the leg. That's like losing a dog.

Besides individual things like thunder and gunshots, what dogs fear most is not belonging, being alone.

Every dog might wish to be Dog One, but like us, most dogs want membership in the group even more than they want supremacy over others.

Cats and dogs are a very good window into the natural world: a chance to see how another species lives and deals with its problems, what they like and what they don't like.