My Life in Dog Years Man and the Natural World Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

I once came home with a dozen angel food cakes, forty pints of whipping cream, and fifty pints of strawberries. I dumped all this in the trough and watched Fred and the pig put their heads under, looking for berries and bits of cake and snorting bubbles of cream as they hunted. (7.26)

This is a funny example of the world of nature becoming more domesticated. Most dogs—or pigs, for that matter—don't eat strawberry shortcake. When given the opportunity, though, we guess they're suckers for junk food like all of us.

Quote #8

We drove to Alaska from Minnesota. It was a major undertaking to drag a trailer holding twenty dogs in back of a 1960 half-ton Chevy pickup, in December, through countryside so daunting that many people hesitate to drive it even in the summer. (8.12)

Paulsen's love of nature and longing for adventure go hand-in-hand. Maybe sometimes it leads him to make unwise decisions or take serious risks. Do you detect a little pride in this passage?

Quote #9

We lived on the edge of the northern bush and were frequently visited by the natives of that wilderness. Porcupines, skunks, wolves, foxes, bears, weasels—all came to visit, and many exacted tribute. (8.35)

That phrase "exacted tribute" gives us a sense of whom the wilderness really belongs to—and it's not Paulsen. It's the animals' world; he's just living in it.