THE DOGS DAYS OF SUMMER...What the Heck Does that Mean?

         “I’m melting….” That’s my internal thought every time I step out into the unbearably hot and horribly humid sticky-icky summer days.  But at least I can sweat, or “glow” as they say here in the south, to cool off. 

Dogs don’t sweat. Their only cooling mechanism is to pant, drawing air across those long fat tongues. Only it’s hot humid air flowing across their tongues so it doesn’t seem as if it would be all that effective. Which explains why they often resort to Plan B: digging holes in the dirt deep under the front porch where it is maybe three degrees cooler. It doesn’t seem as if they have a Plan C.

Melting dogs under porches is why these summer days are known as “The Dog Days of Summer.”

Or so I thought.

Seems I was fed some misinformation as a child. For my many many decades of life, I always pictured a hound dog splatted under a porch when I heard that phrase. I think I saw it on a Saturday Morning cartoon. (Didn’t we all learn our life lessons that way?)

Imagine my incredulity when I learned The Dog Days of Summer actually refer to time of the year when Sirius, the dog star, rises in the morning. Sirius is the brightest star, other than the sun, and is part of the “Greater Dog” constellation.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, Sirius’s rise starts around July 3 and stays high in the morning sky until August 11. The hottest time of the year in the northern hemisphere.

Still a glowing tribute to our four-legged friends, right?

Wait just a gosh darn second.

The Dog Star associated with disease, drought and discomfort? That’s what the ancient Greeks and Romans believed. And a study conducted in 2009 confirmed that yes indeed, the human infection rate did rise during the dog days of summer.

Well, that makes me sad.

And you have to trust The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which in 1817 published the following: “Dog Days are approaching; you must, therefore, make both hay and haste while the Sun shines, for when old Sirius takes command of the weather, he is such an unsteady, crazy dog, there is no dependence upon him.”

I refuse to be a Debbie Downer, so I shall continue to believe the Dog Days of Summer are the time when our pets hunker under front porches and our thermometers go up to “Are you kidding me?”

Stay cool, my friends!