I’m Fixing to Try and Survive These Dog Days

I’m fixing to try and survive these Dog Days.
I remember the first time I heard the term “Dog Days,” back when I was a little feller, just a tadpole. The grown folks would have an ominous tone to their voices when they said, “Dog Days are here!”
Back then I would conjure up all kinds of explanations about what I thought that meant. One was maybe that the dogs were going to take over and be in charge of the world, that they would bark and we would obey instead of it being the other way around.
I would hear folks say, “You better stay out of the woods during Dog Days!” and I would wonder if that meant the woods were fixing to be full of mad dogs.
It didn’t take me too long after that to figure out that “Dog Days” didn’t have anything to do with undisciplined or rabid canines.
I soon discovered that Dog Days referred to the hottest and most sultry days of summer, and although there are varying opinions on the timing, they fall somewhere between early July and early September, a time when things are hot and stagnant, marked by a dull lack of progress. Later on I discovered that the name comes from the ancient belief that the star, Sirius, also called the Dog Star, in close proximity to the sun was responsible for the hot weather.
In spite of this simple explanation, some folks read a lot more into Dog Days than it just being a hot time of the year.
In recent years, “Dog Days” or “Dog Days of Summer” is a term that is frequently used in reference to the stock market. Typically, poorly performing stocks with little future potential are frequently known as “dogs.” In view of our present economic situation, this makes sense to me.
There are also many people who believe the phrase is in reference to the conspicuous laziness of domesticated dogs during the hottest days of the summer. When speaking of “Dog Days” there seems to be a connotation of lying or “dogging” around, or being “dog tired” on these hot and humid days. I don’t know about dogs, but it is applicable to some folks I know.
Another myth asserts the hot period is so-called because rabid dogs are supposed to be more common then, which explains my impressions of “Dog Days” when I was a child.
I also found an explanation as to why grown-ups warned me to stay out of the woods during “Dog Days.” It seems there are more bugs and ticks in the woods this time of year, which turns out to be true, not a myth at all.
The phrase has even found its way into literature. “Dog Days” are mentioned in the short story, “The Bar Sinister” by Richard Harding Davis. The main character, who is a street dog, explains “But when the hot days come, I think they might remember that those are the dog days, and leave a little water outside in a trough, like they do for horses.”
Please remember to leave some water out for your dogs.
And there is the mention of “Dog Days” in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, when referring to Scrooge: “He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog days and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.”
The Prologue of Tuck Everlasting, set in the first week of August, says: “These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.”
We just have to remember to be fixing to keep our cool and survive these Dog Days.