Dog days of summer 2014

Dogs surround us in fact, in legend, in literature, and in daily life references.  My factual/actual dogs, Watson, a 10 pound miniature dachshund, and Teddy, an 18 pound Peek-a-Poo, I call "the subwoofers."  

They're comforting, mischievous, entertaining--sometimes all at once.  They don't ask much and are faithful, always greeting returning humans with enthusiasm.

The language is full of dog references. Like dog-and-pony show, dog days, dog ear, dog-eat-dog, dog house, dog-in-the-manger, dog leg, dogs of war, hair-of-the-dog, dog paddle, dog tags, dog tired, dog trot, dogsbody, dogged, to list a few.  Hounds get similar but lesser treatment: chow hound, hounding (hot on the heels of), houndstooth (a cloth pattern) etc.

From Argos (Homer's name for Ulysses's dog) to Yukon King(wolf dog of Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of radio/tv drama fame, dogs are with us to stay.

E.B. White, author of Charlotte's Web. wrote a charming letter about his dachshund, which I have appended below.

12 April 1951

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
York Avenue and East 92nd Street
New York, 28, NY

Dear Sirs:

I have your letter, undated, saying that I am harboring an unlicensed dog in violation of the law. If by “harboring” you mean getting up two or three times every night to pull Minnie’s blanket up over her, I am harboring a dog all right. The blanket keeps slipping off. I suppose you are wondering by now why I don’t get her a sweater instead. That’s a joke on you. She has a knitted sweater, but she doesn’t like to wear it for sleeping; her legs are so short they work out of a sweater and her toenails get caught in the mesh, and this disturbs her rest. If Minnie doesn’t get her rest, she feels it right away. I do myself, and of course with this night duty of mine, the way the blanket slips and all, I haven’t had any real rest in years. Minnie is twelve.

In spite of what your inspector reported, she has a license. She is licensed in the State of Maine as an unspayed bitch, or what is more commonly called an “unspaded” bitch. She wears her metal license tag but I must say I don’t particularly care for it, as it is in the shape of a hydrant, which seems to me a feeble gag, besides being pointless in the case of a female. It is hard to believe that any state in the Union would circulate a gag like that and make people pay money for it, but Maine is always thinking of something. Maine puts up roadside crosses along the highways to mark the spots where people have lost their lives in motor accidents, so the highways are beginning to take on the appearance of a cemetery, and motoring in Maine has become a solemn experience, when one thinks mostly about death. I was driving along a road near Kittery the other day thinking about death and all of a sudden I heard the spring peepers. That changed me right away and I suddenly thought about life. It was the nicest feeling.

You asked about Minnie’s name, sex, breed, and phone number. She doesn’t answer the phone. She is a dachshund and can’t reach it, but she wouldn’t answer it even if she could, as she has no interest in outside calls. I did have a dachshund once, a male, who was interested in the telephone, and who got a great many calls, but Fred was an exceptional dog (his name was Fred) and I can’t think of anything offhand that he wasn’t interested in. The telephone was only one of a thousand things. He loved life — that is, he loved life if by “life” you mean “trouble,” and of course the phone is almost synonymous with trouble. Minnie loves life, too, but her idea of life is a warm bed, preferably with an electric pad, and a friend in bed with her, and plenty of shut-eye, night and days. She’s almost twelve. I guess I’ve already mentioned that. I got her from Dr. Clarence Little in 1939. He was using dachshunds in his cancer-research experiments (that was before Winchell was running the thing) and he had a couple of extra puppies, so I wheedled Minnie out of him. She later had puppies by her own father, at Dr. Little’s request. What do you think about that for a scandal? I know what Fred thought about it. He was some put out.

Sincerely yours,

E. B. White

My pair of subwoofers are a delight.  They became dearer to me after my heart transplant and remain so today 14 months later.

So even in the dog days of summer, the hottest part of the year, when things are sluggish and calm, I delight in my subwoofers.