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Frau Evelyn Oberndorff
The protagonist of “Hundstage,” the dog is a German Shepherd whose owner is Heinrich Himmler (though the dog refers to his owner only as “Master” throughout the story). The dog is devoted to Himmler and thus, believes his owner can do no wrong. Because of this, the dog celebrates Himmler for doing things like passing laws advancing animal rights—but the dog either doesn’t know or can’t think critically about the other horrible things that Himmler, a high-ranking Nazi official, does. The dog accompanies Himmler to all his meetings and becomes entranced when Himmler studies Hinduism. Though this presents some problems—Himmler insists the dog, a natural carnivore, become vegetarian—the dog also believes that if he follows Himmler’s program of vegetarianism and meditation, he’ll be reincarnated as a human in his next life. One day, when the dog is ill and alone in Himmler’s office, a strange man comes in. Because the dog knows that Himmler would approve, he attacks the man. But when the man begins to pet the dog, the dog calms down. He only learns after Himmler returns and is incensed that the dog “betrayed” him that the man is the veterinarian sent to treat him for his illness. Following this, Himmler banishes the dog into the woods in winter. There, the dog attempts to follow Himmler’s program, but he struggles. Though he meets several animal souls that try to encourage him to think more critically about Himmler and Nazi Germany more generally, the dog is too devoted to Himmler to be able to do so. Eventually, the emaciated dog winds up with a unit of Allied anti-tank dogs—dogs who were strapped with bombs and trained to find food under German tanks, which turned them into suicide bombers. Though the dog tells his companions that there’s no food under the German tanks, they don’t believe him. When the Allies release the dog with the bombs, the dog dies of exposure and starvation before he even reaches German lines.
The Dog Quotes in Only the Animals
The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by The Dog or refer to The Dog. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Hundstage: Soul of Dog
Quotes
I was starving. My Master had recently begun to follow a vegetarian diet and decided that I should give up all meat too, in keeping with his beliefs [...] Not only that, he was concerned about my karma. He had promised me that if I did as he said, ate no meat, resisted my urge to hunt foxes, and tried to meditate once a day, I might be reincarnated as a human being in my next life. A human being! The thought was intoxicating.
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“A wise friend once told me that kindness, like cruelty, can be an expression of domination,” the pig said.
“That makes no sense,” I said scornfully.
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Plautus: A Memoir of My Years on Earth and Last Days in Space: Soul of Tortoise
Quotes
But there is mechanical trouble while he’s up there and instead of getting sips of water or tablets, he starts getting zapped by the electric pads wired to the soles of his feet. He gets back to earth, gets out of the capsule and the NASA guys are smiling, holding his hands, but Enos is fucking mad. This used to make me laugh. But up in space, I just had to think about this, about Enos getting buzzed on his feet for doing the right thing—the right thing! what he’s been trained to do!—and I wanted to bite somebody’s face off.
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The Dog Quotes in Only the Animals
The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by The Dog or refer to The Dog. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Hundstage: Soul of Dog
Quotes
I was starving. My Master had recently begun to follow a vegetarian diet and decided that I should give up all meat too, in keeping with his beliefs [...] Not only that, he was concerned about my karma. He had promised me that if I did as he said, ate no meat, resisted my urge to hunt foxes, and tried to meditate once a day, I might be reincarnated as a human being in my next life. A human being! The thought was intoxicating.
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“A wise friend once told me that kindness, like cruelty, can be an expression of domination,” the pig said.
“That makes no sense,” I said scornfully.
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Plautus: A Memoir of My Years on Earth and Last Days in Space: Soul of Tortoise
Quotes
But there is mechanical trouble while he’s up there and instead of getting sips of water or tablets, he starts getting zapped by the electric pads wired to the soles of his feet. He gets back to earth, gets out of the capsule and the NASA guys are smiling, holding his hands, but Enos is fucking mad. This used to make me laugh. But up in space, I just had to think about this, about Enos getting buzzed on his feet for doing the right thing—the right thing! what he’s been trained to do!—and I wanted to bite somebody’s face off.
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