Dog Days of Summer

Woof! I love getting emails from my readers ... thank you for all your
kind words. Every so often a get a question and this week's inbox had
a really cool question.

Dear BooBoo,
"I am confused. What exactly do my humans mean when they talk about the 'dog days of summer' ... somehow, I dont feel it is very complimentary."
signed: Checkers, Winnipeg MN.

Oh my dear Checkers! There is nothing unkind in the saying dog days of summer. What our humans are saying is that the days are very, very hot and it is darn right woofing as to how that saying came about. It goes back to a time long ago, back when the Egyptians and the Romans ruled the land and it has to do with the formation of the stars in the sky.

Checkers dear, next time you are out in the backyard in the dark, look up at the sky. Ancient Egyptian and Roman humans did not have TVs to watch so to entertain themselves they would sit outside and look at the stars in the sky. They began to play games of connecting the stars to make a picture in the dark. You could say that it is star art in the sky. Today your mommie and mine would refer to this art as constellations and each has a different name, you know like the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.

One of those star formations is Canis Major, or the Greater Dog, because, well, errrwhen the stars were connected they formed the shape of a dog (yes, there is also a Lesser or Smaller Dog). The brightest star in that formation is called Sirius and ok, let me get this straight, you know how the earth tilts and moves up and down and is in different positions to the sun at different times of the year, and at a certain time of the year the star Sirius and the sun rise in conjunction and it is a sign that hot days are just around the corner. The ancients believed that it was because the hottest day star the sun, and the brightest star in the Greater Dog constellation, the Sirius --- and therefore probably the hottest star of the dog constellation --- appeared to be so close together, that it was the heat of the two so close together that made the earth so hot. That is why they call the hot days of summer, the dog days of summer. We are experiencing those days now.

Now ... I do wonder about Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun ... woof! Lets not go there.

barkfully yours....
BooBoo Barkley - Chief Barker BooBoo Speaks! The NewsletterRafish Dog About Town, BooBoo Barkley and his pack of hounds post on the newest, the latest, the hippest the chicest, and just some good old fashioned tips for pet parents and their precious pooches.