Pug Day Afternoon

Did you ever wonder what the expression "dog day afternoon" meant? Well, yeah, there was that Al Pacino movie, which I've mostly forgotten except that it had AP in it. But the original meaning had to do with the position of the Dog Star (Sirius) and was believed by the Ancient Romans to be a day in summer when people went mad and the seas boiled.


For a pug, it's a little different. Here's Lucy lying in the sunniest, dustiest part of the back yard, the place where the dogs have scratched off every bit of grass, catching a few rays. Mad? Maybe a little.







In other Nature news, some of you have been so good as to ask about the pond. You will recall that at one point last summer we had 20-some fish. Then tragedy struck and now ... three remain. The good news is that that's a constant number since last August or September. The bad news is that only one of the Big Two (originally Mr. Big and Biggie Smalls) survived the koi-o-clasm.


If you will look a little to the left of the center of the picture, you'll see Biggie Smalls, (he's the multi-colored one), who thus far has been a little more lucky than his namesake, the original Biggie Smalls, AKA The Notorious B.I.G., who was born about the time of the Dog Day Afternoon movie and went to the big koi pond in the sky about 25 years later, victim of an unsolved drive-by shooting. Confused? Yeah, me too.


Anyway, THIS Biggie Smalls survived a long winter under an ice crust along with two unnamed fishy buddies and now the hope is that they can survive Mr. Pug's endless tinkering with the water, plants, and algae levels.


I'll let you know.