“People are always asking me what specialty I want, and I just keep telling them that I’m just focused on getting into med school. How do I know what area will appeal to me? I haven’t even been accepted yet.”
“You will,” CJ said. “I know you will.”
“You’ve always believed in me, CJ. You saved my life.”
“No, you saved your own life. You know what they say in the program—no one else can do it for you.”
“Yeah, I know,” Dawn said.
CJ coughed weakly and I jumped up to be next to her. Her hand came down and stroked my back.
“I guess I’d better get going,” Dawn finally said.
“I so appreciate you making the trip, Dawn.”
They hugged each other and I felt the love flow between them.
“Have a safe flight,” CJ said. “And remember, you can always call me.”
Dawn nodded, wiping her eyes. She smiled and waved as she left the room, and I snuggled next to my girl, feeling her drop into a deep nap.
One afternoon CJ was feeding me pieces of a ham and cheese sandwich that Eddie had brought her when she stopped and looked at me. I kept my eye on the sandwich.
“Toby,” she said, “listen to me. I know that you’re really bonded to me, but I’m going to be leaving you. I could stay, but I’ve had all the good things this life can offer me and I’m weary of all the bad—especially of what is to come if I try to prolong it. I just want to be with my husband. The only regret I have is leaving my friends, and you’re one of those friends, Toby. But I know you are loved and taken care of, and I know that to be loved and to have a job is more important than anything to a dog. You remind me in so many ways of my dog Molly, her gentleness, but also of Max, with his self-assurance. Will you tell my angel dogs I’m coming to be with them soon? And will you be with me in my final moments? I don’t want to be afraid—and if you’re there, I know I’ll be brave. You’re my forever friend, Toby.”
The love ran strong between us as my girl pulled me close to her.
CJ left one cool, clear spring afternoon. Fran had been sitting with her all day, and I had lain with my head on her chest, her hand loosely stroking my fur. When the hand stopped moving, I looked at Fran, who moved her chair closer and took the now slack hand in hers. Bit by bit CJ let go of life, until, with one final breath, my girl was gone.
“Good dog, Toby,” Fran told me. She hugged me and her tears fell on my fur.
I thought about baby Clarity falling off the dock at the Farm. How her eyes had been on me when Gloria picked her up. “Bubby,” she’d said. I remembered her coming into the yard with Trent to take me home. I thought about her hugs and kisses, how when I was Max she would hold me to her chest to keep me warm.
I would have to live without her hugs now.
My CJ. She taught me that it was a good thing to love more than just my boy, Ethan, opening my eyes to the fact that I’d actually loved many people in my lives, that loving humans was my ultimate purpose. Her presence in my lives formed the center point of my existence and enabled me to help the people who lay in beds in their rooms to fight off their fears and find ultimate peace and acceptance.
I served those people for many years after CJ left, but never did I let a day go by without remembering her—remembering baby Clarity as she slipped into the horse’s kennel, remembering CJ as she held me in the car by the ocean, remembering living with Trent when I was Max.
When a sharp pain made me cry one morning as I did my business, Patsy and Fran and Eddie took me to the Vet, and I knew why they were all going on the car ride. I was nearly blind at that point, but I could still smell the cinnamon and Chaucer on Patsy’s hands as she picked me up and carried me, panting, into the Vet’s office and laid me on the cool table. Eddie’s strong, chicken-scented hands soothed me, and they all whispered in my ear as the quick stab brought with it almost instant relief.
“We love you,” they said.
This time as the waves swept over me, they were not dark but had a frothy luminance dancing on millions of bubbles. I raised my head up and floated toward this brightness, bursting through the water’s surface and into the glorious light of sunrise. Gold, the light was gold as it played across the gentle waves, and my vision was suddenly as clear and sharp as a puppy’s. A bouquet of wonderful scents met my nose, and my heart leaped when I realized who I was smelling.
“Molly!” I heard someone call.
I whipped my head around and there they were, the people I’d been smelling. Everyone I’d ever loved in my life, standing at the edge of the water, smiling and clapping. I saw Ethan and Hannah and Trent and CJ standing in front, along with Andi and Maya and Jakob and all the others.
“Bailey!” Ethan yelled, waving.
My name was Toby, and Buddy, and Molly and Max and Bailey and Ellie. I was a good dog, and this was my reward. Now I would get to be with the people I loved.
I turned, whimpering with joy, and swam toward those golden shores.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is the part of the book where I have to admit that a lot of people helped contribute to the whole process, and the easiest thing would be to begin at, well, the beginning. In July 2010, yet another book with a dog on the cover joined the burgeoning crowd of books with dogs on their covers—A Dog’s Purpose, it was called. The first week it was eligible, this novel (my first) leapt onto the bestseller lists, where it remained for nineteen weeks. Now, you can’t bribe your way onto those lists, though I’m sure someone has tried. People have to buy the book, and enough people gave A Dog’s Purpose a chance that it added up to a wonderful run at the bookstore.
And that, you see, led to this, the sequel. No one publishes the sequel to a book that didn’t sell, so the best place to start thanking people is with everyone who bought my novel in the first place. Because of you, A Dog’s Journey found a home with Tom Doherty Associates, an imprint of Macmillan, the same people who did such a great job supporting A Dog’s Purpose.
At Tom Doherty, I want to thank Kristin Sevick, my editor, who gave me such great advice and wonderful ideas while the novel was still in manuscript that I found my way to exactly the book I wanted to write. I want to thank Linda Quinton, who has been a tireless advocate for my novels and who has shown innovation, wisdom, and (I need to say it) tolerance in dealing with my books and my aspirations. Thanks to Karen Lovell, for her publicity magic and marketing support. Thanks to Kathleen Doherty, for making my books important to school kids, and to Tom Doherty, for being the man behind the curtain.
I wouldn’t even have a published novel if it weren’t for Scott Miller, my agent at Trident Media. Scott believed in me when we couldn’t sell anything to anybody, and I won’t forget that, Scott.
Kayla Ibarra has been here at the worldwide headquarters of Cameron Productions, Inc., and without her we wouldn’t have been able to respond to reader requests or run the amazing Dog of the Week program at www.adogspurpose.com. That website was designed and implemented by the amazingly talented Hillary Carlip at www.flyhc.com.
Researching this book was easy because my daughter Georgia works in animal rescue at Life is Better Rescue in Colorado, which she owns and runs. You do amazing work and I’m proud of you.
Much of what I know about hospice and end-of-life care I learned from my aunt Lucy, who volunteered for decades at Angela Hospice in Livonia, Michigan. She introduced me to Bob Alexander, and he, Barb Iovan, Mary Ann Joganic, LMSW, Peggy Devos, RN, and Karen Lemon, RN, CHPN, BS, were patient and kind in answering my questions and helping me to understand what it means to have a family member in hospice care. I want to thank them, both for their information and their gentle assistance to Aunt Lucy when she passed away this last summer. Aunt Lucy, you were a second mother to me.
Speaking of hospice, my friend Dannion Brinkley and his Twilight Brigade are on a mission to raise society’s consciousness about the needs of the dying and to make sure no one, especially our nation’s veterans, dies alone. Thank y
ou, Dannion.
I would urge anyone facing end-of-life choices to read Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley (Bantam, 1997). It’s a wonderful book.
I never write a book about animals without reading Temple Grandin’s invaluable Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009) and Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Mariner Books, 2006). Catherine Johnson is the coauthor of both of these works and I regret that I failed to give proper credit in earlier citations of these two wonderful books.
While researching canines I came across a wonderful little gem of a book by Roger Abrantes called Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behaviour (Wakan Tanka Publishers, 1997.) It really helped me decode what was going on in the dog park! I also recommend, and found really helpful, How Dogs Think: What the World Looks Like to Them and Why They Act the Way They Do by Stanley Coren (Free Press, 2005) and Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz (Scribner, 2010).
When it came to understanding eating disorders, I was able to turn to friends of mine who have done battle with such demons and, to respect their privacy, I will not name them here. They know I’m grateful for their insights. I also can recommend Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too by Jenni Schaefer and Thom Rutledge (McGraw-Hill, 2003), Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationship with Food Through Myths, Metaphors, and Storytelling by Anita A. Johnston, Ph.D. (Gurze Books, 2000), and Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain by Portia de Rossi (Atria, 2010).
My friend Dina Zaphiris, the “Behavior Savior,” has been training dogs to detect cancer, much the way that Andi does during the life of Molly. Thank you, Dina, for your advice, your help, and for being such a good second mother to Tucker.
Of course, that’s not it, meaning that a book doesn’t come together just because of some research, a great team, and a public willing to read the finished product—my personal support group starts with my parents, Bill and Monsie Cameron, who never told me anything other than if I wanted to be a novelist, I could be a novelist. My sister Julie has turned her medical practice into a bookstore and literally cheers for me with every success, whether minor or major. I am so blessed to have her in my life. My sister Amy, the schoolteacher, and her friend Judy Robben did an amazing job writing the study guide for A Dog’s Purpose, and for my other novel, Emory’s Gift. I’ll probably talk them into doing the same for A Dog’s Journey, as well. She could have been Miss America, but instead decided to just help plain old Bruce.
As could be expected from such a wonderful father as myself, I’ve got great children and children-in-law. My daughter Georgia’s animal rescue wouldn’t be possible without Christopher, her husband, who tirelessly and without complaint works at her side. Daughter Chelsea and her husband, James, flew out to be with me on the day Emory’s Gift was released and even went to Hawaii to celebrate the event. My son, Chase, recruited Charlie Salem and, between the two of them, have done a wonderful job supporting my writing.
Thanks to my Nobel Prize–winning sister-in-law, Maria Hjelm, for running the Northern California campaign, and for giving the world Ethan, Maya, and Jakob. Thanks, Ted, for doing your part in that.
By the time anyone reads this, my newspaper column, which ran for thirteen glorious years, will have folded. It was my decision: after winning (in 2010) the Newspaper Columnist of the Year Award, I decided that my weekly musings, which started with a column called “The Family Meeting” and focused mainly on raising children, had run its course. I’m going out on top of my game and before it becomes possible to write about grandchildren. Bob Bridges has been my copyeditor for nearly every single one of my columns, all of it on a volunteer basis. Thank you, Bob. And thanks to my column editor, Anthony Zurcher, and to Jack Newcombe, and everyone else at Creators, for syndicating my column.
Thanks to Gavin Palone, for his belief and support of my writing and for staking his professional reputation on it.
Thanks, Geoff Jennings, for being tirelessly supportive in word and deed, and to all the independent bookstores that got behind A Dog’s Purpose and pushed.
Thank you, Deb Mangelsdorf, for your wise advice about dogs and veterinary medicine.
Thanks, Claire LaZebnik, a wonderful writer and great friend, who helps keep me mentally steady when I’m about to fall, or throw myself, off the high wire that is being an author in today’s world. (Not that I’m complaining—I wanted to be on the high wire!) Thanks to all the LaZebniks, for sharing Claire and everything else with me.
Julie, Norma, Marcia—the Coven. Thank you, I’m still under your spell.
Maxine Lapiduss is a genius.
Toni Marteney, thank you for starting the Bruce Cameron fan club in Hawaii. When are you going to fly me out for a meeting?
Tucker, you’re a good dog.
Ted and Evie Michon created one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen: Cathryn Michon.
Cathryn, you know how much of you is in everything I write. Your love gives me purpose, it is a gift, it makes me treasure the journey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. BRUCE CAMERON is the New York Times bestselling author of A Dog’s Purpose and 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, which was turned into the hit ABC television series. He has twice received the National Society of Newspaper Columnist’s Award for Best Humor Columnist. He lives in California. Visit him on the Web at www.brucecameron.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A DOG’S JOURNEY
Copyright © 2012 by W. Bruce Cameron
All rights reserved.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
e-ISBN 978-1-4299-9285-5
First Edition: May 2012
A Q&A with W. Bruce Cameron about
A Dog’s Purpose & A Dog’s Journey
1. What was the inspiration behind your novels A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey?
My very first dog was a Labrador named Cammie. Cammie was sweet and docile and ate nearly everything left lying around: T-shirts, balloons, shoes. Cammie and I were best friends, a little boy and his dog, exploring and playing and wrestling every single day. So when, years later, I was riding my bicycle in Colorado and I came across a dog behind a fence who barked like Cammie, stared at me with Cammie’s eyes, even wagged her tail with a curious little butt-bounce, I felt as if I was interacting with my childhood buddy, my first dog.
I rode away from that encounter with a couple of questions on my mind: what if dogs never truly die? What if they are reborn, remembering each life, so that they might recognize their people just as Cammie recognized me? And, if that were true, what would it look like from the dog’s perspective?
A Dog’s Journey and A Dog’s Purpose are based on a couple of things we all know to be certain: True love never dies, and our real friends are always there for us if we know where to look.
2. How did you conduct your research for these two books?
I did what you might expect: I walked around with a tennis ball in my mouth, I dug up my neighbor’s shrubs, I lifted my leg on a fire hydrant. Then I read a lot of books on canine behavior, some of which led me to conclude that the author had never even met a dog. I mean, you might think that a dog pack is organized like the military, with everyone knowing their rank and saluting their superiors (see lifting leg reference, above) but in my observation, when a new dog shows up, the deck gets completely shuffled. We train our dogs and that, of course, changes everything, but if
all you’ve done is adopt a dog and then beg it not to sleep on the couch, it is going to be this happy-go-lucky creature who just does not spend a lot of time stressing over the org chart.
3. Has the reception to A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey surprised you?
Frankly, it surprised everyone, though I don’t think my dog was as shocked as I was. These books have both camped out on the New York Times bestseller list, they are taught in schools, and all the emails and social media response suggest people are really taken with these two stories. I guess it may have something to do with the fact that in the end, you don’t have a sobbing family standing around having a dog funeral. There are goodbyes, of course, but neither novel is a “dead dog book.” And A Dog’s Purpose and the sequel concern a real dog—that is, not a dog who understands spoken English, but a real dog who is hoping all the words he’s hearing will eventually wind up with his name and “treat” in the same sentence.
4. Reincarnation plays a critical role in A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Journey, and even your coming-of-age novel Emory’s Gift. Do you believe in reincarnation?
Well, I can tell you one thing: If I’m coming back, I’m not doing eighth grade again.
I wouldn’t say reincarnation is part of my faith so much as I’m open to the idea, as open as I am to time travel, superheroes, inexpensive gasoline, and a host of other unlikely notions. It’s a device I employed to tell a story. I’d say limiting one’s consumption of fiction to only those stories which might realistically happen is to cut oneself off from a rich wealth of fun novels.
5. So are all W. Bruce Cameron novels “dog books?”
A Dog's Purpose Boxed Set Page 51