A Dog's Purpose

What is the meaning of life?

Are we here for a reason?

Is there a point to any of this?

First, I had no idea what was going on.

I, I couldn't see a thing.

It was warm.

There was my mother.

Every day I had fun.

Was having fun the point?

The whole point?

No, it couldn't be that simple.

Here's one.

And then it was over.

That's it for you.

No more fun.

It seemed like such a short life.

I mean, what exactly did I do?

There was some playing. There was some eating.

I dug in the dirt.

But when I really thought about it, it didn't add up to much.

I was back. And I was a puppy again.

Alive and ready to ask the big questions, to dig for answers.

Just let me in there.

Um, where am I?

So, what else do you have? This one here.

Ah.

What is it? It's a Red Retriever.

Nice dog. Good breed. Easy to train.

You got something smaller?

I got some cute Yorkies over here. Ah.

I got this Japanese Chin.

A poodle.

Corgi over here.

Look at all this great stuff!

Somebody knew I was coming.

Oh, yeah.

Hey. Look at this.

What do we have here?

Look at this little guy.

Bet it's worth a couple of bucks.

Yeah, it was a knockout in the second round. I lost everything.

Hang tight, guy.

Now, you're buying this time.

Not today, buddy.

I thought about my life.

I still had so many questions.

But I kept coming back to the same one.

How do I get a drink of water?

Do you wanna get an ice cream? - Sure.

What flavor?

Mom, I hear something in there.

Hey, honey!

Ethan.

Hey, Mom. Come here.

Oh, my God.

It looks so thirsty.

It's too hot in there.

- I think we need to get him out. - I can't open the door.

Wait. It's locked. Please, Mom!

Okay. Stand back.

You poor thing.

You poor, poor thing.

How are you, boy? Good?

What is this?

Mom ! A boy?

Boy? Are you okay? A boy!

I never knew there might be such a thing as a boy.

I think this little guy is gonna make it.

Can we keep him, Mom? I don't know.

I think your father might mind.

I decided, right then and there...

I am definitely keeping this boy.

Yeah. Dad! Can we keep him?

Well, who's gonna feed him?

I will.

Who's gonna clean him? I'll do everything, Dad.

You think you're ready to do it? Yeah.

I don't know, son. He's a good boy. He's a good boy.

Come on. Please! He's a retriever, Dad.

He'll fetch your slippers. And the paper when it rains.

Name something you want fetched. He can do it.

Look. Just come here. What are you doing?

So, Ethan and I discussed that the dog would be his responsibility.

Good boy.

Please, Dad?

Come on. He needs a pal.

All right, this thing that you two are doing? It's dirty pool, okay?

Take him away. I wanna talk to your mother alone.

Okay.

You nervous, boy? Don't be.

It'll be okay. Yeah.

We don't have much choice.

They make a mess, then you gotta clean them.

Oh, come on.

He's gonna be bored with it. Oh, come on, Jim.

No! You know how he is.

If he says no, we can run off and go find another family.

Ethan. Yeah?

You have a dog.

Yes! Oh, my gosh! Yes!

Come on, boy!

Whoo! Yes.

Oh, my gosh! Thank you! Come on! Come on!

Bailey.

B-A-I-L-E-Y. I would think.

And I'm Ethan.

I'm the owner.

Do you think he knows how to spell my name?

I would think so, honey.

Good boy.

Here you go.

Ready?

Come on, Bailey.

Bailey, sit! Sit!

Roll over! Roll over.

Get that out of your mouth! Get that out of your mouth!

Okay. Come here!

Shake your paw. Shake your paw.

Come on. Yeah! Good boy.

Turn around. Turn around. Come on.

What's he saying? It's too many words.

I'm gonna do this now.

Come here. Good job.

But one word got said more than any other.

Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey.

After a while, I came to understand the words that mattered.

I had a boy, and his name was Ethan.

I got a name.

My name was Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey.

Oh, gee. I wish I'd have known that you and Wes were...

I learned my place in the pack.

Mom liked me.

Dad liked me.

Yes.

A lot.

Excuse me. Hold on.

Come on. Get down!

I was sad for the cat.

Obviously, he wanted to be a dog.

It wasn't my fault he couldn't be a dog.

Ethan, it's time to go to bed.

Time to turn out the light, okay?

Okay.

Okay, come on. Come on, come on.

"Don't! Don't do it, Cap."

"Let him have it, Bucky.

"We'll pound some sense into this character."

"Pow!"

"Stop!"

"It's coming right at us. Jump for your lives!"

Ethan always came up with such great games.

"Boom!" Making noise under a blanket?

Genius.

"Way too long. Zap!"

Every night as I fell asleep,

I thought about how happy I was that I had an Ethan.

And that I wasn't a cat.

Bailey, get in the car. Come on, boy!

Come on.

I wanna know

If you'll be my girl

Hey

Whenever the family wanted me to get some fresh smells,

we all got in the car for a ride.

Grass, tree, toad, moss, skunk,

dead skunk, pond, mud, goat.

Goat!

Everyone was asking themself the same question.

Why can't everything smell like goat?

Oh, it stinks!

Oh, boy, look who's here.

Guess what we got!

What have you got?

What'd you get?

Come on, Bailey!

Look at this! Oh! A puppy!

Here, boy. Here.

Hey!

Sometimes I thought that trying to make sense out of life

could be a waste of time.

Maybe it was better to just really enjoy life.

And leave it at that.

Come on, boy!

Hey! Where'd everybody go?

Where's all the chickens?

Bailey! Bailey, Bailey!

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan!

Yeah!

Oh, my goodness! Look who's here!

For some reason, they wouldn't share this ball with me.

Yes! Run, Ethan, run!

Everybody knows there's never been a game in the history of balls

that can't be improved by having a dog in it.

But there was something weird about this ball.

Treasure.

Oh, no.

Ah, this is the life.

Anyone else? Jim, your coffee.

Thank you. Here you go.

Here we all are.