Where were they? Who was to lead them?
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator says this of the 15 dogs' collective concern after receiving the gift of human intelligence. As soon as their intellectual capacities change, the dogs begin engaging with new more philosophical and emotional questions. This moment also illustrates the ways in which the gift will soon divide them: over questions of identity and power.

The twelve dogs reacted differently to their altered status.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator says this of the dogs after they gradually begin to establish a new hierarchy amongst themselves. The line speaks to the coming divisions between the dogs, and the apologue's later explorations of individuality, of their varying modes of understanding and wielding their intellect. Though all the dogs were blessed with the same capacities, the narrator suggests, even at this early moment in the narrative, that each will live a drastically different life as a result.

Consider that...
-- Hermes (chapter 1)