Sheep

“Then, while we pups swarmed around his ankles, he’d fill one big bowl for us. The second he set it down, we’d attack like a pack of ill-mannered bloodhounds. Even I would forget about making a good impression. I’d push and shove and keep my nose right in there. A day without a full belly wasn’t a day I wanted to live. Well, that’s how you think when you’re young, before you see the long road ahead. Full-belly days are all you know.”

Here, Jack’s retrospective narration hints at the trouble that the young Jack will face in the coming chapters. It also suggests that Jack has found better times than the ones he hints at here, and thus, Hobbs delivers a small reassurance in the midst of her foreshadowing about darker times to come. For young Jack, this excerpt comes right after Jack describes how he used to try to behave like a business-oriented pup. While this attempt would work for a few moments, Jack could not long resist the urge to eat and play, emphasizing the frivolity of his youthful nature. These lines also create an implicit comparison between the innocence of childhood and the wisdom of adulthood. The older version of Jack recognizes the folly in his youthful misconceptions because he has since endured hardships that his younger self never could have imagined. By contrast, young Jack’s fears of not being able to eat his fill are minor compared to his imminent experiences in the real world.

“Well, I knew that if I’d needed a bath, Bob would have given me one. And now I knew why he didn’t. Baths are terrible things. Soapsuds in your eyes and up your nose, making you sneeze. Bubbles popping and snapping in your ears, your feet slipping out beneath you.

Afterward, I couldn’t stop shaking. Couldn’t get all that water off. I really thought I’d lost the good smell of me forever.”

This excerpt comes while Jack is at the pound after being taken from the farm. Following the fire, Jack’s world has changed, and Hobbs’s shift in focus to Jack’s distaste for baths provides a more lighthearted topic to mitigate the protagonist’s recent loss. The bath itself represents Jack’s new start, even if this change is not a welcome one. Jack’s dislike of the bath reflects his dislike of the entire situation, and his inability to recognize his own smell symbolizes the array of new and unwanted experiences that he is forced to endure.

“It was a sorrowful existence for a pup. The glass box had been bad enough, but at least I had company. Sorry to say, I wasn’t very brave that first night. I whined and howled my head off, but nobody came. Except for the cat. She cruised by a couple of times, waving the tip of her tail. No sympathy at all. But what can you expect from a cat?”

These lines come during Jack’s first night with the girl and his new home. Instead of sleeping inside with the girl’s siblings and parents, Jack is put outside in a cold, lonely doghouse for the night. Jack’s incessant howling is characterized as a form of loneliness and grief, and Hobbs pointedly uses a canine perspective to reframe an occurrence—barking and howling—that humans often perceive as being annoying. This scene emphasizes that animals are creatures with emotions just like people. The description of the cat also offers a humorous nod to the stereotypically contentious relationship between cats and dogs.

“The highway was just part of the bigger thing he believed in, his place on the earth. Never asked for a thing, the Goat Man. I never once saw him reach his hand out for someone else’s money. It would never have occurred to him to beg. He had all he needed. Goat's milk and the cheese he made from it, some goat’s meat now and then, and his wisdom. Cropping the grass wherever it grew was the Goat Man’s purpose, his payment for the little space on the earth he and the goats took up. The circle of life, he called it.”

These lines encapsulate Jack’s understanding of the Goat Man. During his time with the Goat Man, Jack constantly learns new lessons from the man’s experience and views of life. Here, Jack sees the Goat Man for who he truly is—a traveler who lives in harmony with the land and takes every moment as it comes. The Goat Man teaches Jack to accept every new circumstance that life brings him. Jack also learns the important lesson that that not everything in life needs to be herded, for the Goat Man takes his time, and the goats move as they please, not letting Jack or anything else disrupt their system. Jack later comes to understand that he doesn’t always have to be on the move.

“I didn’t know how to stop them was the thing. I could make them move all right, but they didn’t have any brakes. I kept wanting to stop so that I could check on the Goat Man, see if he was awake yet. But the goats kept on going. That’s the thing about goats and sheep. Some children, too, if you want the truth. If you don't set your fence out there somewhere, they’ll just keep going with never a thought.”

This passage comes after the Goat Man has died, though Jack is not yet aware of this fact. In this moment, Jack realizes that not everything can be solved by herding, and he also learns that other creatures have wills of their own and will not always obey his attempts to herd them. The scene also shows Jack’s desire for rules and restrictions. To him, the world is defined by where he and others are allowed to go, and when he finally realizes that there is truly no limit on this, he resolves to set out alone to find his destiny.

“Life on the open road was a brave adventure, but only if your belly was full. Then you had the strength to explore, to go any old place your feet and your curiosity could take you. But if you were hungry, life was just a search for food. You couldn’t think about anything else. You couldn’t enjoy a good romp with a pal you met along the way, or play tag with the kids in the park, or savor all the rich odors of the great outdoors. Your nose had a single purpose, and that was to find food. After a while it didn’t even matter what kind.”

These lines echo Jack’s earlier observations about full-belly days in Chapter 1. Then, Jack looked back fondly on his younger self’s idea of hunger because that pup truly didn’t know what it meant to be hungry. Here, the young Jack has been on his own for a few days and has discovered that he must find his own food sources. Upon realizing that he is responsible for his own survival, he truly begins to grow up and take on the responsibilities and stressors of adulthood. This passage also highlights the difference between being hungry and feeling true hunger. Being hungry implies that there is food to be had and that one just has to eat it, while true hunger involves the uncertainty of where one’s next meal will come from.

“Well, I’d watched people smoke cigarettes before. Cigars were more or less the same, only the coughing was worse. The Goat Man said he could never understand why people smoked, but I did. It was to make the clouds. They'd get this dreamy look in their eyes sometimes as the smoke rose up, and that’s how you could tell. Still, it was strange. The Goat Man said it was like taking poison, and he was never wrong.”

Here, Jack is watching the thieves smoke, and the author uses his reflections on the Goat Man’s words to deliver a philosophical message about the nature of smoking. The passage also conveys the difference between the Goat Man’s human musings and Jack’s vaguer canine contemplations on the topic. Jack knows that the clouds produced by smoking have an effect that humans deem desirable, but he doesn’t know what this is or why people find it important. The final comment about the Goat Man’s wisdom also serves as a reminder of the important role the man plays as the archetypal sage in Jack’s journey.

“A pretty little spaniel caught my eye. She was on a leash but didn’t seem to mind. She walked ahead of her mistress with such an air of self-possession that you wondered who was walking whom. The spaniel stopped to give me a good sniff of her. I let her do the same. We touched noses, and I went back for another sniff.”

This passage provides another example of Jack’s coming-of-age journey. As he matures, he notices female dogs for the first time, and this interaction is meant to be the canine equivalent of flirting. The description of the spaniel also shows that dogs, like people, have individual personalities and mannerisms. The spaniel walks as though her leash is a way for her to keep her human in line, rather than the other way around. Jack is attracted to this behavior because it reminds him of herding, which is why he goes back for another sniff.

“Good job, son. I knew that’s what my dad would have said to me in time. I saw the pride in his eyes as he watched me try my best to herd those sheep. He was waiting for me to learn, to grow into my craft. He thought there was time.”

These lines come while Jack returns to the pound for the second time. He dreams of sheep for the first time, and the dream is both a reminder of happier times and a farewell to the life that Jack will never recover. His father’s words remind Jack that he is loved and serve as motivation to persevere. The final lines also highlight the fact that circumstances can change in an instant and hint at the danger of putting off important conversations because of the assumption that there is still plenty of time left.

“One day, when I thought everybody had gone, I began complaining to the sheepdog. ‘Nobody ever picks me. I’ll never get out of here!’

‘You’re trying too hard,’ the sheepdog said. ‘Relax!’”

Here, Jack has been in the pound for a few days and is starting to worry that he will be stuck there for the rest of his life. The sheepdog he speaks to acts as a mentor of sorts, telling Jack to be patient when people come to see him. Jack thinks that he has taken this advice to heart, but his dialogue shows that he is still young and has much to learn. Jack’s old life taught him to stand out if he wanted to be noticed, and he does not realize that the people who visit the pound are judging the dogs they see by a different set of standards. The sheepdog’s advice for Jack to relax foreshadows the fact that Jack’s eager approach is about to get him noticed by a person he would be well advised to avoid.

“We weren’t the only ones having a conversation. All around us were languages I’d never heard before, elephant and horse talk, monkey chatter. It was thrilling in its way, so much to learn.”

In this passage, Jack has just been brought to the animal enclosure at the circus. He is kept in a small cage among dogs, elephants, monkeys, and all the other animal performers, and although the new experience is scary, he also finds it fascinating. This excerpt shows that even dark and dangerous circumstances can offer some good things. Jack is trapped, and though he doesn’t yet know it, his life is about to take a turn for the worse. However, amidst the uncertainty, he finds himself eager to learn and understand the other creatures and languages around him. The circus as a whole demonstrates the intricacies that await in the wider world.

“Even Tiffany, whose job it was to pull a wagon with You and You Too in the back, looked silly in her pink tutu. Most of the dogs were your smaller breeds, terriers, spaniels, Chihuahuas. Billy had them all going at once, through hoops and tunnels, up ramps, around in circles. You and You Too balanced on rolling balls. Tiffany danced like that elephant, on her back paws. She was very graceful, but I had to look away. She’d lived in a mansion once. She’d slept on diamonds. How could she let him make her look so foolish?”

This passage highlights The Search for Identity and Purpose. Jack has changed in many ways throughout his travels, but there are parts of him that can never change, such as his pride in his heritage. His inability to watch Tiffany dance shows the limit of what he is willing to accept. He accepts the other dogs doing tricks because although such actions are beneath them, he can respect the dogs for their skill and their use of canine athleticism. Dancing, however, is more than Jack can accept because he sees it as ridiculous and degrading. Jack’s pride in his own heritage makes him determined to limit the antics that he will engage in for the benefit of humans. He views tricks and herding as worthwhile because they also allow him to hold on to who he is, but dancing is so far from what he believes a dog should do that it disrupts his sense of identity.

“This is what I’ve come to know about elephants: they are not slow. They might look slow, but they’re one heck of a lot faster than sheep, and a whole lot more dangerous.”

Jack makes these observations about elephants right before the fire that burns down the circus. Jack’s comparison of the elephants to sheep also shows that Jack continues to be influenced by his past and uses it to inform his understanding of the present. Using sheep as a reference point, Jack realizes that elephants are powerful and potentially dangerous animals, and his comments on the topic emphasize the rampant chaos of the fire at the circus.

“I ran right over, jumped up, and turned it on. Took a long, slow drink. Was that ever satisfying!

The kid couldn't believe his eyes. ‘Wow! Are you a trick dog or what? How did you do that?’

I hate being underestimated. Call it pride, but what’s so hard about turning on a water fountain?”

This passage comes shortly after Jack meets Luke. In the town where Luke’s orphanage is located, Jack gets a drink from a water fountain, impressing Luke. This passage offers a glimpse at humans from a canine perspective. Although Luke is amazed, Jack believes that turning on a water fountain is simple. This contrast in perspectives emphasizes the human tendency to underestimate those they deem to be less intelligent or capable than themselves. In this case, Luke underestimates Jack because Jack is a dog and does not realize how resourceful animals can be. The scene therefore serves as a lesson not to judge others based on appearance or perceived aptitude.

“Funny how life is. If the Goat Man had stuck around, my life would have been a whole lot easier. I’d have learned everything there is to know. As it turned out, I learned the hard way, which isn’t always so bad, the hard way being a whole lot better than learning nothing at all.”

Here, Jack has realized that the Good Shepherd Home for Boys has nothing to do with sheep. This passage explains the difference between learning from others and learning through experience. With the Goat Man, Jack learned many things, but those lessons were secondhand, providing him with no more than a hypothetical understanding of life. By contrast, the lessons that Jack has learned from his own experiences after leaving the Goat Man have been more powerfully internalized. It is true that Jack could have learned everything from listening to the Goat Man, but that version of learning would never have been as thorough as facing obstacles himself.

“There was not one speck of dust under that bed, not a bug or a cobweb. Made me uneasy. It seemed unnatural. Dirt was a necessary part of the things kids did, like playing softball and building forts. They liked dirt. What kind of a place was this?”

Here, Luke sneaks Jack into the orphanage for the night, and the lack of dust under the bed sets Jack on edge because it runs counter to his understanding of the world. From this inconsequential detail, Jack realizes that the orphanage is not a healthy place for Luke, and the moment acts as the catalyst for Jack’s decision to help Luke find a real home. Taken in conjunction with the previous quote about learning from the Goat Man, this excerpt shows the difference between understanding something and experiencing it directly. Jack knows that children and dirt go together because he has seen this. Thus, seeing the lack of dirt in a place full of children makes him immediately understand the unnatural and oppressive feeling of the orphanage.

“Somewhere along the way that woman lost sight of what a real boy is, mostly what a real boy needs. Food, sure. A warm bed to snuggle into at the end of a long day. But a boy needs love most of all. A boy needs to be told he’s a good dog.

Good boy, I mean.

Well, there isn’t as much difference as you’d think.”

These lines suggest that Jack’s experiences can easily be applied to the human world, for Jack compares himself to human children and offers new insights into his many lessons in his coming-of-age journey. When he states that Luke needs the same things that a puppy does, he is focusing on the universal needs that create The Intangible Aspects of Home, such as love, comfort, safety, and support. On a broader level, these lines represent the author’s message that children have a right to expect certain essential elements from the adults in their life. Children deserve to be respected and treated well, just like all other creatures, and they should never settle for less. Thus, Hobbs delivers vital messages of hope and resilience, hidden in a whimsical narrative about a dog’s adventures in the wider world.

“Morning came at last. Light seeped in under the porch. My hiding place was dismal in the morning light—broken bottles, cigarette butts, a bicycle wheel threaded with spiderwebs. I crawled out, did a couple of rolls in the dust to get the kinks out. I wasn’t in a very good mood, and my empty stomach ached. I started back toward the home, giving my ugliest sheep eye to every cat that crossed my path. Scared the heck out of a lady’s Chihuahua, too, but then everything scares those skinny little things.”

This passage relates the fact that difficult circumstances can make people act against their nature. Despite the hardships that he has faced, Jack is typically a cheerful dog who finds the best in every situation. In this case, however, he has had a rough night, and his serious contemplations about the problem at hand have made him grumpy and unpleasant. As a result, he acts differently than he normally would, scaring cats and small dogs alike. The final line of this passage also acts as a joke about the size and general disposition of Chihuahuas, offering another way to relate to Jack.

“Even the boy who’d pushed Luke around had been trying his best to get some parents. He stood straight and tall, like he was proud of himself. He shook hands like he really meant it. Not Luke.

Well, that boy didn’t get chosen either. But he’d tried. You had to respect that.”

In this passage, Jack has just watched the boys at Luke’s orphanage on one of their adoption days. Neither Luke nor this bullying boy are chosen, but Jack sees a marked difference in how the two boys behave. Although the bully gets no positive results, he nonetheless tries to catch the eye of potential adopters. By contrast, Luke does not try at all. Jack’s reaction to this scene shows his insightfulness and his ability to discern finer nuances in personality. Although he dislikes the other boy’s bullying behavior, he nonetheless respects his attempts to be presentable to the visiting adults. This passage also conveys the idea that doing everything right might not result in success. Although the other boy demonstrates politeness and projects a respectable image, he does not get adopted, proving that the events at the orphanage are essentially beyond the boys’ control.

“Twenty-six times. First couple of times, I got real excited. I mean, it was like this big thing! Like you were going to win a prize if you were good. I knew I was going to be picked. I even dreamed it once, how I got these real cool folks and my own room all to myself.”

Here, Luke is telling Jack about all the times he has not been adopted. Luke’s attitude shows the cycle of emotions that he has experienced, from hope to disappointment and resignation. This passage shows that Jack and Luke have had similar emotional experiences. Luke was once hopeful, just as Jack’s younger self hoped for great things in Chapter 1. As Luke’s disappointments accumulate, his hope starts to wane, and this dynamic echoes Jack’s experiences of hardship and his despair over the uncertainty of finding his true purpose in life. Luke’s current attitude also echoes Jack’s despair and the sense of being trapped that he felt during his time at the circus. Luke has not yet realized that there is still hope because he is too disappointed to see the possibilities that the future holds. Just as Jack needed the support of the Goat Man and Tiffany in order to move forward, Luke needs support that Jack is determined to provide.

“The next two days went more or less like that. Luke wouldn’t get picked, he wouldn’t get the quarter, and we’d head straight over to Raggedy Annie’s. I didn’t always take a nap, though. I’d stick my nose into the book on Luke’s lap while he sounded out the words. That’s how I learned to read. It wasn’t so hard. I got real caught up in that book. It was all about this great dog, Buck, and his adventures in the frozen North. It had a man in it, too. I knew Buck was going to save that man even before he did.” 

These lines highlight the long literary tradition that celebrates the enduring relationship between humans and dogs. The book that Jack reads in this passage is Jack London’s Call of the Wild, in which the actions of the canine protagonist, Buck, prove instrumental to the rescue of a human. This literary comparison foreshadows the fact that Jack will rescue Luke from himself by the end of the book, and it also cements Sheep firmly in the genre of animal fiction. These lines also showcase Jack’s intelligence. While there is no real evidence suggesting that dogs possess the capacity to read, this scene nonetheless suggests that the intelligence of dogs is often overlooked. As Jack reads and reflects on the book’s message, Hobbs uses this as a metafictional moment to indirectly urge her own readers to learn from the messages that Sheep provides about embracing life’s challenges on the coming-of-age journey.

“Nosing my way toward the home, I thought long and hard about Luke, about why he acted the way he did, as if he didn’t care if he got a home or not. I think he was afraid to show how much it meant to him. Then he could say it didn’t matter when he didn’t get picked. He didn’t know how to change his ways, and so he probably wouldn’t.”

These lines come while Jack is developing a plan to help Luke find a home and family. Here, Jack realizes that Luke’s distaste for adoption days is the boy’s way of covering up his deep-seated feelings of grief and rejection. This passage therefore stresses the danger of burying emotions instead of processing them and moving on. Luke evinces a stoic appearance because he does not want to show anyone how deeply he is hurt by the prospect of never getting adopted, but by hiding these emotions, he is only hurting himself because he rejects the possibility of accepting comfort or help from others. Jack’s assessment of Luke’s behavior also highlights the danger of refusing to change. Luke’s anger about his situation illustrates the negative effects of losing all hope and resilience. Luke avoids hopeful thoughts because he does not want his hope to be shattered yet again.

“We drove up to a little house and a barn, and the first thing I smelled was sheep. Sheep! I hopped out and began rounding up the herd. All six of them. Yeah, I know, only six, but in no time they were the best-trained, most well behaved sheep in the whole world. Don’t ask me how I know, I just know.”

The joyous tone of this passage emphasizes that Jack has finally come full circle. As he and Luke arrive at their new home, which turns out to be a sheep farm, Jacks unbridled delight emphasizes the triumph of the moment and proves that even through all of his many traumatic experiences, he has maintained the core of his identity and has finally found his multifaceted life purpose. Jack’s observation about the sheep is both a nod to dog instincts and a humorous moment. Jack truly has no proof that these are the best-behaved sheep in the world, but he wants to believe that they will become so under the influence of his herding activities. Jack’s ability to instinctively know things to be true has been demonstrated multiple times throughout the novel, most notably when he understands the emotional states of the Goat Man and Luke. In this scene, his effusive enthusiasm over once again herding sheep emphasizes the point that he has finally found the place in which he belongs, both physically and spiritually.