A SHORT YEAR OF THE DOG RETROSPECTIVE

The Year of the Dog is officially over and we have begun the Year of the Earth Pig.  I asked our dog, Darcy, if she had any words of wisdom as we move on.  First, she said that she would like to think that this is now the Year of Groundhog (earth=ground, pig=hog), so we should pay attention to what goes on in the shadows.  I told her to stop being silly.  Then she suggested that I just go outside and look at the night sky for a few minutes.  We went to the back yard and had the following conversation:

ME:  It’s really clear tonight, and look at all you can see up there since it’s a new moon.  Is that red one Mars?  I had thought Mars would be a little lower in the sky.

DARCY:  And I would have thought that Mars would not be flashing on and off and moving from southeast to northwest.

ME:  Oh.  Yeah.  Look at that other bright star up by Orion.

DARCY:  That’s the Dog Star.

ME:  Sirius?

DARCY:  Oh, yes.  Dogs are very proud of the Dog Star and take it quite seriously – just as we took the Year of the Dog seriously.

ME:  I mean the star, Sirius.

DARCY:  I don’t know how to tell whether a star is joking.  By the way, who’s on first?

ME:  You’re right.  It was that kind of year.

It was a teaching/learning moment.