Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog

The Grogans’ Pennsylvania home is on two acres of steep hillside with a meadow and a creek. Marley and the children love their new setting, although John feels slightly lonely in the comparatively isolated location. He connects with their new neighbor Digger, a local man who offers kind advice. The family hopes for a white Christmas during their first Pennsylvania winter, but the first snow of the season doesn’t arrive until after the new year. Marley enjoys his first snow day with the kids, and John takes Marley on a wild toboggan ride through the woods, commenting on the way home that he’s “getting too old for this stuff” and alluding that Marley’s advancing age will become increasingly obvious in the months ahead (224).

Marley is now an elderly dog at nine years old. John notices that Marley is slowing down during that first winter in Pennsylvania. Marley still has bursts of energy but prefers to snooze. He no longer has boundless energy on walks. After a particularly difficult walk, John observes that “without us quite realizing it, our eternal puppy had become a senior citizen” (225). Marley’s energy is diminishing, but he is still a rascal and continues stealing food from dinner plates, rummaging trash cans, drinking from the bathtub, and generally destroying the house.