“A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, and a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“Animal lovers are a special breed of humans, generous of spirit, full of empathy, perhaps a little prone to sentimentality and with hearts as big as a cloudless sky”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me Illustrated Edition: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog

“A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbol means nothing to him. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not. As I wrote that farewell column to Marley, I realized it was all right there in front of us, if only we opened our eyes. Sometimes it took a dog with bad breath, worse manners, and pure intentions to help us see.”

― John Grogan

“. . . owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don’t live as long as people do.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“It’s just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn’t it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.

It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if you can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“Then I dropped my forehead against his and sat there for a long time, as if I could telegraph a message through our two skulls, from my brain to his. I wanted to make him understand some things.

You know all that stuff we’ve always said about you?” I whispered. “What a total pain you are? Don’t believe it. Don’t believe it for a minute, Marley.” He needed to know that, and something more, too. There was something I had never told him, that no one ever had. I wanted him to hear it before he went.

Marley,” I said. “You are a great dog.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“There’s no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“I had never thought of Marley as any kind of model, but sitting there sipping my beer, I was aware that maybe he held the secret for a good life. Never slow down, never look back, live each day w/ adolescent verve and spunk and curiosity and playfulness.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me Illustrated Edition: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog

“In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.”

― John Grogan, Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life from the Philadelphia Inquirer

“In a dog’s life, some plaster would fall, some cushions would open, some rugs would shred. Like any relationship, this one had its costs. They were costs we came to accept and balance against the joy and amusement and protection and companionship he gave us.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“Only then did I see. Something was amiss with Patrick’s Snap-On one piece, or “onesie” as we manly dads like to call it. His chubby thighs, I now realized, were squeezed into the armholes, which were so tight they must have been cutting off his circulation. The collared neck hung between his legs like an udder. Up top, Patrick’s head stuck out through the unsnapped crotch, and his arms were lost somewhere in the billowing pant legs. It was quite a look.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me Illustrated Edition: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog

“If you still think you’re a young pup then you are, no matter what the calendar says”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“In a world of bosses, you are your own master”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me

“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“He taught us the art of unqualified love. How to give it, how to accept it. Where there is that, most other pieces fall into place.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“Just so you know Labrador retrievers do not howl. Begals Howl. Wolves howl. Labs do not howl, at least not well. Marley attempted twice to howl, both times in answer to a passing police siren, tossing back his head, forming his mouth into an O shape, and letting loose the most pathetic sound I have ever heard, more like gargling than answering the call of the wild. But now, no question about it he was howling.”

― John Grogan, Marley: A Dog like No Other

“A dog doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

“(Referring to their hens/chickens)

We now had three girls and one testosterone-pumped guy bird that spent every walking minute doing of three things: pursuing sex, having sex or crowing boastfully about the sex he had just scored. Jenny observed that roosters are what men would be if left to their own devices, with no social conventions to rein in their baser instincts, and I couldn’t disagree. I had to admit, I kind of admired the lucky bastard.”

― John Grogan, Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World’s Worst Dog

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This one has been doing rounds on all the social networking sites and I found it really heart touching. If you like it, share it. A really important message is conveyed through this poem and even if this helps and saves one dog from being abandoned it would mean a lot.

“Woof!” I said as you started the car,
“Hooray!” I said, it’s my first time afar.
The scents we were passing were all new to me,
For it was my first introduction to this mystery.
As we got out of the car I embraced you with joy,
After all you remembered to bring my favourite toy!
You threw it once or twice, of which I retrieved,
But on the third it seemed you were ready to leave.
You threw it long and hard and I chased it like lightning,
But when I turned to bring it back I saw a sight quite frightening.

I gripped my toy hard as I tried to comprehend
What it was I did wrong to make our relationship end.
You walked back to your car as I sat there still loyal.
Why am I subservient and you so royal?
Your engine started, and you peeled out into the night,
You didn’t even care about my overwhelming fright.
As I sat in my pose determined you would come back,
The sun faded behind me while the surroundings turned black.
Day after day I stayed in that park,
Lying… waiting… too feeble to bark.
As I lay there dying thinking of you master,
I asked myself how I got into this horrifying disaster.
With my last breath of life, I whispered your name
Then I collapsed in a heap overrun by pain.
Why didn’t you love me master? Why didn’t you care?
Had I no significance, was I just a clump of hair?
I stayed there master and I waited for you
I guess taking care of me was just too much to do.
I’m gone now master, no more You-and-I
But what I can’t figure out is why you didn’t even say goodbye…

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