A Dog's Purpose

Tony Hernandez
Reading
November 20th 2016

This book starts out in the eyes of a puppy, looking at his mother it goes through the process of
the mother teaching the puppies how to live on there own in the wild and to hate humans fear
man mother would say the first pages of the book are very hectic a big part of the beginning is
that the main puppy soon to be named toby experiences a great loss of his brother,hungry and
his mother, his brother fast and him all got caught by an illegal dog rescue home this is where
the dog is named toby by an older woman he learns to love named senora. Toby loves the
yard which is full of dogs Senora has rescued,he has a best friend named cocoa she is a fawn
colored female who he loves, at the end of chapter three toby's mother opens the gate and
walks out of the yard, motioning to toby to come with, leaving fast he does, but doesn't go any
further, mama left him and her family to live in the wild,toby stayed. When senoras men caught
mama and her pups, one got away, toby called her sister. She is brought to the yard, she is very
timid and afraid. Toby got neutered and had to wear a cone that he hated, and suddenly lost
interest in cocoas and his game of tackle after this a new dog is brought in named spike who
was a doberman dog fighter he suddenly became top dog and decided to threaten sister
which irritated fast and toby who decided to fight spike, resulting in toby's leg being broken, he
had to wear a cast. The last big thing that happened in this chunk was that the legal dog
kennels came in and took all the dogs to legal dog kennel but had to many dogs so decided to
put toby down, he felt a sharp pain then bliss.

The next chunk Toby is a puppy again which confused me a lot! This time he is a golden
retriever, and in the cage next to him he can hear a dalmatian giving birth, you soon discover by
context hints that toby is in a puppy mill, using what he saw when his first mother opened the
gate at the yard he opened the gate of the puppy mill because he felt he had a greater purpose,
on his adventure away from the puppy mill he meets a man who puts toby in his car, the man
leaves Toby in the car in the sun while he goes to the bar, Toby is left in the car for hours before
he starts to feel faint and like he's dying, then he sees a woman in the window and she breaks
the window and takes Toby, pouring water over him and putting him in air conditioning before
she took him home to meet her son, ethan who named Toby Bailey, Bailey learns that his
purpose in this life is to love the boy and protect him, this life was by far the longest and most
intense, some main events in this life began when a new family moved into the neighborhood
and had a son named Todd who Bailey had a horrid feeling about, and one day when Bailey
was walking around the neighborhood by himself Todd called him over and took him into his
room where he tried to make Bailey smell chloroform and when he wouldn't Todd smacked
Bailey, luckily before anything else could happen Todd's little sister saved Bailey and let him out
of the house.
In each of these lives Bailey gets neutered and has to wear a cone which he hates,
every summer up at ethan's grandparents farm with ethan and his mother, a lot happens for
Bailey here, he gets sprayed by a skunk and him and ethan made up a new game called save
me where Ethan would go under water and Bailey would go under after him and drag him up to
the surface. The next summer Ethan met a girl who he had a crush on named Hannah. The
family left Ethan and Emily alone while they went into town. While the family was gone, Ethan
and Emily played and Ethan shot some cans using his grandpas gun. Later that night, while
still alone, they thought they heard noises so Ethan took out his grandpas gun. Emily knew this
was wrong, but they didnt end up finding anything in the house, so just went to bed.

The next day Ethan went on a horse ride and Bailey followed. Ethan took too many turns and
got lost. When a snake surprised, Flare the horse, he reared and Ethan fell off. Now Bailey and
Ethan are alone and lost and end up sleeping on the ground. The following day, Ethan and
Bailey walked and walked until they heard someone calling Ethans name. It was man from the
neighborhood who had been looking for Ethan and took him and Bailey home. A few days later
they left the farm to return to the city.
When they got back to the city, Bailey realized that his best friend Marshmallow was
missing. Todd came up to talk to Ethan, and Bailey could smell Marshmallow on him. Bailey
never saw Marshmallow again, and knew that Todd must have killed his best friend.
Ethans girlfriend, Hannah came to the city to visit Ethan. Todd told Hannah a bunch of
lies about Ethan secretly seeing another girl and Hannah became upset. Ethan denies it, and
when Hannah visits again in the winter, she tells Ethan that Todd is the person who told the lies
about him. Ethan gets really mad at Todd, and yells at him and pretty much tells him hes a
freak and messed up. That same night Bailey went for a walk by himself around the
neighborhood. When he returned the door the house was hanging open and Bailey could see
Todd at the door splashing gasoline all over the house. When Todd lit the house on fire, Bailey
attacked him and tore up his ankle. Ethans mom and dad came running out of the burning
house yelling for Ethan. Ethan was trapped in his room and had to jump out the window. He
landed on a burning bush and got burned badly and was so injured he couldnt play football
anymore. Ethan gets really depressed and Todd ends up in jail. The next fall, Ethan goes to
college and Bailey is confused about where Ethan is. Ethans parents ended up divorcing and
Bailey is forced to stay at grandma and grandpas where isnt happy and extremely bored.
Ethan returns from only three times a year, which is the only time that Bailey is happy.
Ethans mom gets a new boyfriend. Baileys getting older and his favorite time of the day is
doing chores with Grandpa, which is actually just taking a nap.
Bailey gets so depressed that the only time he acts like his old self is when Ethan comes to visit.
He quits eating and his family takes him to the vet. Mom is crying. Bailey feels a sharp pain in
his back. He is so worried about causing Ethan any pain and feels like he is responsible for
protecting Ethans mom. Ethan finally walked into the vet, hugged him and hold Bailey that,
You are a doodle dog and I love you. Bailey felt another sharp stab and all his pain was gone.
When he woke up he was a puppy again.

The new puppy didnt understand why he was a puppy again. He felt like he had no purpose,
that he had no reason to be a dog again.

The dog soon realized that he was a female this time around. A man picked him up, put a t-shirt
over her head and asked if she could find her way out. She did. The man put her in a cage in
the back of his truck, which did not make her very happy. They went to a small home with a
balcony and visited the park every day. She soon learned that her owners name was Jacob,
and he had named her Ellie.
Jacob was a police officer and Ellie was a German Shephard. This life was different. Jacob
didnt let Ellie sleep with him and this made her miss Ethan even more. Ellie was humiliated
when she got her period and had to wear doggy diapers and fight off all the male dogs at the
park. Finally Jacob got Ellie spayed. Ellie and Jacob trained to find things using scent. Their
first mission was to find a missing person, suffering from Alzheimers. Ellie sniffed her out and
found her swinging on a swing. After this, Ellie realized that her purpose was to save people.
Ellie learned that Jacob had a wife, but she died some years ago. They went to the ocean and
Ellie realized that where she lived now, there was no snow. She still really missed Ethan.
Ellie and Jacob were given a mission to find a missing child in the mall. The child was
kidnapped by a child murderer. Jacob drove, with Ellie sniffing out the direction the kidnapper
had taken and barking to let Jacob know which way to go.
They found the little girl in a house deep in the woods, but when the man saw Jacob, he ran into
the woods. Ellie chased after the man, with Jacob following. The kidnapper shot Jacob causing
Ellie to attack the man. Jacobs partner came and shot the kidnapper and Jacob was taken
away in a medical helicopter. Ellie was forced to stay at the station and was very lonely until
she met a woman named Mya.

Ellie moves in with Mya, who takes over for Jacob and needs to learn to work with Ellie. They
visit Jacob and realize that he isnt coming back to work. Ellie and Maya are assigned a mission
in an earthquake zone. They work very hard, but only find dead bodies until finally Ellie catches
the scent of a person still alive. She goes to the woman, but has to go through acid to save her.
Ellie needs to go to the clinic to treat her injured nose. When the treatments are done, Ellie can
no longer smell, so her job as a search and rescue dog is over. Mya gets engaged. She takes
Ellie to a school as part of an outreach program, they also visit senior centers and hospitals.
Mya and Ellie meet up with Jacob, who has remarried and has a son at the school they are
visiting. Jacob is thrilled to see Ellie. While they are at the school, a child goes missing and
instead of calling 911, Jacob wants to give Ellie a chance to find the child. Ellie sniffs the childs
backpack, but has a hard time finding the scent. Finally, Ellie catches the childs scent in the
sewer, jumps in a saves the boy, Jeffrey. Mya and Ellie receive a reward for their job finding
Jeffrey.
Ellie became older and older until finally she had to be put down. She had no regrets, she was
at peace. This final time Ellie wakes up as a black lab puppy. She is not happy, she doesnt
understand why she is a puppy again. She goes home with a man, who presents her to his
girlfriend Wendy. Wendy names him Poohbear. Wendy loved him a lot. However, she was
young and irresponsible and would sometimes forget to feed him or let him out for potty breaks.
The house Poohbear lived in with Wendy was always a mess. It ended up that Wendy was not
allowed to have pets in her apartment, so Poohbear had to go live with Wendys mom. Wendys
mom is great, but she has a boyfriend named Victor who beat Wendys mom. Victor was mean
to Poohbear too and would chain him up in the yard without food or water. Thank goodness for
the next door neighbor, a nice lady who would give him food and water and eventually called the
police. They investigated, and gave Victor a hefty fine and a list of things that he needed to
change. Victor was very angry at Poohbear because of this. He told Poohbear that they were
going on a car ride. He shoved Poohbear in the trunk of his car in total darkness. Poohbear
was very scared and hot. Finally, after driving for a long time, the trunk opened to total
darkness. Victor yelled at Poohbear to get out of there and drove off.

Poohbear wandered around looking for water and realized that he knew where he was. He
realized that he was at the place where he and Ethan were when Flare had run off. He followed
the steps that he and Ethan had taken, found the road and walked hungrily into town. Poohbear
saw a man put food out for an old dog who didnt want to eat the food. When the man let the
old dog back in the house Poohbear at the food.

Poohbear wandered to the dog park and caught the scent of a woman who smelled like Hannah
and followed her around. The woman left, and Poohbear stayed at the dog park several days
until the police showed up and tried to catch Poohbear, who ran. Poohbear ran until he came to
a house where an old man was sitting on the porch. The man seemed familiar. Poohbear got
closer and realized that the old man was Ethan. He got very excited and jumped onto the mans
lap. Ethan is happy to see the dog, giving him lots of love, food and water and takes him into
his house. The dog catchers come to take Poohbear away. When Ethan asks what will become
of the dog, they tell him that hopefully hell get adopted. Ethan tells the dog catchers that he
would like to keep the dog. Ethan names the dog Buddy. One day, when Hannah is out doing
errands, Ethan has a seizure and starts talking to Buddy like he is Bailey. Buddy/Bailey stays by
Ethans side as he dies, finally alone with his old master.