Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

From the very dawn of time until now and well into the future... human-animal companionship is at the very core of our instincts not only for mutual survival, but mutually rewarding relationships.

This was what you did in the '50s: You get married, get a job, put your husband through graduate school, and have two kids - a girl and a boy.

Barring some competition from whales, wolves are probably America's most popular wild animal. Wolves are also contenders for America's most unpopular wild animal, with perhaps some competition from coyotes.

The dogs and I are a single thing, and thus we share our interests. With them, I'm bigger and better than I am without them, and vice versa.

One of the best and most responsible things a scientist can do is to write for the popular press.

People didn't think animals thought or remembered or had minds! They most certainly do: any pet owner knows more than a lot of scientists about animals.

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

Dogs like to learn stuff, if not from another dog, then people are OK... They love activity, playing, interesting walks, and just belonging, being together.

The relationships we have with dogs seem simple enough and often are taken for granted. But these relationships can be deep and mysterious, and not at all simple.

You have to be able to love members of your own species before you can branch out and apply that to other species.

People are perfectly glad to accept the idea that dogs love us, so they must be able to love each other.

I don't mind aging - I'm glad to be aging. I'll never die young.