Sirius the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the heavens which appears in the Canis Major constellation. The ancient Egyptians calculated their calendars by it, because when it rose in the sky it meant that it was time for the Nile toflood and restore the fertility of the land. In many other civilisations, however, Sirius was despised. It rises at dawn in the hottest months of the year, July and August, which were also the worst times for plague, drought and famine. To the Greeks it was the ‘evil’ star and in Britain too it had a bad reputation. The saying "dog days", meaning a bad, malignant time, refers to the hot months when Sirius rises at dawn and dogs grow more fractious in the heat and are more inclined to bite.

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The first animal to be kept alive with insulin was Marjorie, a black and white mongrel who was kept at the University of Toronto. Her pancreas was removed to make her diabetic, she was then put on a course of insulin, which was the only thing that could save her life. She lived for 70 days after the operation and died in July 1921. Her contribution to science was immeasurable, because it gave doctors the confidence to use insulin on diabetic humans who, until then, had been almost certainly doomed. Six months after the experiment on Marjorie, 13 year old Leonard Thomson became the first human to receive this life saving therapy.

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We should be deeply suspicious of the motives of enormous St. Bernards who roam the Alps in search of allegedly "lost" mountaineers. Their holier-than-thou look, their piety, shouldn’t fool us. They are indeed fostering alcoholism and their activities should be investigated.

Anon

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From the medieval period and into the eighteenth century, August was a bad month for dogs. During the hot "dog days" of the summer the officers of every city were under orders to kill off as many strays as they could get their hands on.

When, during the seventeenth century, it was realised that there was a link between the plague, rats, cats and dogs, (it was the plague flea, though no one knew it at the time) – things got even worse and the dogs were rounded up and massacred in their thousands. The dog-killers who specialised in this work were instantly recognisable, they wore uniforms made from dog skins.

When the great plague hit London in 1666, 40,000 dogs were destroyed by the dog-killers. Cats came off even worse, and an amazing 200,000 met their end.

War spells bad news for dogs too. In the first few weeks after World War 11 broke out 400,000 dogs were put down by owners who remembered the rationing and anti-dog feeling that had made life so difficult during World War 1.

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During the Second World War, the ministry of food issued the following "Waste of food" Order: -

Dogs should as far as possible be fed on food that is not suitable for human consumption. The pet dog should as far as possible be fed on household scraps that would have otherwise been thrown away. These scraps should be supplemented if necessary, by any of the usual purchased dog food or other non-human foods. Only when the available quantities of the foregoing foods are insufficient, should any human food be used, and the quantity of such food should be kept to a minimum."

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