Maybe I’m spending too much time with my dogs in retirement?  They are often my only companions during the day, and I’ve always been envious of their lifestyle.  They can nap whenever they want, bark when they need something, and “just act cute” when they crave attention.  I’ve tried all of these things, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me!  The best part is that dogs don’t know what day, time, or year it is.  They respond to the moment and react accordingly.  They do, however, have built-in clocks that signal hunger, and sometimes make you think they know the time.  They have a knack for making their owner believe that they have the smartest dog on the planet.

Dogs are “man’s best friend,” but they really like women better!  They get so excited when my wife gets home from work, and can hear her car as it enters the neighborhood.  They rush to the door in anticipation of her arrival.  I’m pretty sure they lie at my feet all day wondering, “when will mom be home?”  Dogs are not uncommon in folklore and mythology.  “Black Shuck” stalks the coastline of eastern England, “Barghest” is a mythological monstrous dog, “Cerberus” is multi-headed and guards the entrance to the underworld, “Quqirn” causes fits when approached by humans, “Argos” was the faithful dog of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, “Axehandle hound” is of lumberjack folklore, “Luison” was a monstrous creature that inhabited burial grounds, “Pesanta” is a giant dog that creeps into people’s homes and sits on their chests, and “Cavali” was King Arthur’s dog who hunted the enchanted wild boar.  These are dogs not to be messed with!

“Dog Day Afternoon” was an Al Pacino movie about a bank robbery in Brooklyn.  Apparently, it was really hot that day, because if it had been bitter cold, it would have been a “Three Dog Night.”  This Australian term took its meaning from cold nights when you slept with one dog.  Colder meant you slept with two dogs, but on a really bitter night, three were necessary to keep you warm.  The “dog days” or “dog days of summer” are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, which Greek and Roman astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. They are now taken to be the hottest, most uncomfortable part of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Here’s a favorite rhyme with farmers:

“Dog days bright and clear
Indicate a good year;
But when accompanied by rain,
We hope for better times in vain.”

You can begin to see how dogs have influenced our lives, our legends, and our weather terminology.  Make sure to tell your dog that August 26th is national “Dog Day,” because they don’t know what day it is!  I would like to suggest that the “dog days of retirement” occur when you finally get to the point where you honestly don’t know what day it is and don’t really care. It’s that moment when calendars, watches, and smart phones just don’t matter any more.  Slowly but surely I’m getting there.  What day is it, again?