A Dog's Life

Reinforcing the idea of movement and adapting, wandering is an important motif in the book. Variations of the term “wandering,” “travel,” and “roam” appear more than 25 times in the novel. These terms show Squirrel’s ongoing movement from location to location. In fact, she lives a nomadic life for most of the book, seldom staying in any one place for long. To avoid possible predators and humans, she becomes migratory, choosing to rest in warm areas only during the wintertime:

I spent the warm weather wandering, as I had wandered after I left the Beckers’ house. When the cold weather arrived, I looked for another farm. And that became the pattern of my life. Farms in the winter, wandering the rest of the time (138).

This lifestyle leads her to numerous farms or towns to avoid the winter chill. As one of many other examples, she and Moon only stay in the town of Claremont for a winter, since they’ve learned as strays that it’s safer to wander to avoid danger and detection from humans.

This motif is integral to Squirrel’s plotline because she’s a wandering soul in search of belonging. As she moves, she must adapt to every changing place. Sometimes, her setting changes due to others’ influence, like when Marcy and George force her and Bone to stay in their garage. Other times, like when she’s separated from Bone, Squirrel seeks out new settings. Either way, she’s consistently on the move, creating a mood of transition that propels the plot forward.

Wandering teaches Squirrel to evaluate each environment’s positives and negatives. Based on the setting, she chooses her behavior. For example, she decides to stay in the woods for warmth, easy hunting, and access to water at the stream. At the rest stop, she and Moon must fight the mean dogs, and they decide never to return to the rest stop because of this danger. She adapts to the highway by avoiding cars and adjusts to the Beckers’ neglect by hunting outside. To survive, Squirrel continues to wander and adapt to her surroundings. For most of the story, every place is temporary. After years of traveling, Squirrel finds a true home and stays there only when she meets Susan, ending this motif while emphasizing the theme of belonging.