My Dogs and the Holidays.

Who doesn't love a party? It appears to be a universal concept, as every culture has some kind of holiday in which everyone can celebrate, with food and drink.

With humans, alcohol seems to be the most common reoccurring factor in holidays and celebrations. In fact some sociologist believe that alcohol (beer) may have been the reason Homo Sapiens (people) gave up their nomadic lifestyle, settled down, developed agriculture and (eventually) civilization: The needed to brew beer!

Alcohol lead to partying, holidays, festivities, and celebrations. Most everyone enjoys celebrating the holidays. Like everyone else, so do my my dogs. But the significance of the holidays, however, is a bit different from a dog's perspective as the importance of any particular holiday is usually dependant one one key factor: food. Thus, some holidays they like more than others, the primary consideration for them is what kind of meal, if any, will be provided.

The following is a list of holidays,

and their significance to my dogs:

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day

These three holidays are lumped together, as in my dogs mind they are essentially the same - time to barbecue! And if there is anything the dogs love, it is barbecue. 

I did explain Independence Day to my youngest dog, Macky Rae. He understood patriotism, he just didn't understand the need to blow things up with fireworks in order to celebrate. Quite frankly (now that he mentioned it) neither do I.

Halloween

Not quite appreciated by the dogs, as begging for candy that I would not allow them to eat did not seem like much fun.  

Last October, they did decide to dress up for the day, but couldn't decide on what to dress up as. So I asked them if they wanted to be funny or scary. They decided on scary. Then I asked them what was the scariest thing they could think of. After a few moments, Macky Rae said "Animal Control Officers." 

Thanksgiving

Two words: Unlimited Turkey.

Need I explain further? Eat until you can eat no more, then take a nap on the floor in the middle of the living room. This is a dog-fantasy come true.

Come to think about it, that's why I like the holiday myself. 

Christmas

The dogs are somewhat confused as to why we bring a tree into the house (especially since they aren't allowed to pee on it), but they enjoy eating treats out of a sock on Christmas morning.

New Years Eve

We stayed up last New Years, eating dog treats and watching Time Square on TV, and when midnight came, I blew a horn and said "Happy New Years!" The dogs watched at me as I sang Auld Lang Syne (They didn't know the words, so they couldn't sing along). When I finished, Freedom, (my oldest dog) ask "Now what?"  

Sarah, my female, snorted and walked off, mumbling "I can't believe I stayed up for this."

Grounddog Day

My dogs like spring, as it means winter is over. They do not like winter, or (more specifically) they do not like the cold. Groundhog Day is the first holiday that acknowledges the coming of spring. As we do not know any groundhogs, or even know if there are even any groundhogs west of the Mississippi River, we have modified the holiday to Grounddog Day. 

We get up early, eat a hearty breakfast, then with reverent pomp go outside to observe our shadows. Having seen them, and determining that spring will arrive in six weeks, we go back inside to eat dog treats. 

We are fortunate each year in that we always see our shadows. Macky Rae asked me this year how long until spring if we do not see our shadow. This was never covered in grade-school when we learned about Groundhog Day, so I had to improvise and I told him "A month and a half." This satisfied Macky, but Sarah did the math. 

"A month and a half is the same as six weeks" she observed. I told her that was true, and she then asked "Then why do we do this every year?"

Mardi Gras

This is sort of a dog-related holiday, if you think about it. In New Orleans if you show your puppies, you get beads. But nobody will give beads just to see my puppies, so my dogs don't observe the day.

Valentines Day

Not popular with my dogs, mainly because the primary treat on this day is chocolate, which dogs can't have.

St. Patrick's Day

Another unpopular holiday with the dogs, as it is mainly about celebrating the life of an Irishman by drinking beer (which dogs can't have). They were not amused by my attempt one year to get them into the spirit by dyeing there kibble green. Nor did they appreciate getting pinched for not wearing green. Sarah's exact words were "Do it again, Dad, and you will lose that hand!"

First Day of Spring - March 21st

As I explained (Grounddog Day, above) My dogs dislike winter/ the cold. Therefore, the first day of spring is a joyous event, celebrated by dancing and enjoying dog treats. They also celebrate:

• The second day of spring (celebrated by dancing and enjoying dog treats)
• The third day of spring (dancing and dog treats)
• The fourth day of spring (dancing and dog treats)

They don't celebrate the fifth day of spring. I ask why, and Sarah said "It would be redundant."

April Fools Day

Macky Rae likes the web surfing, and is always looking up new and interesting websites. Last April 1st I played a joke on Macky Rae and told him the entire internet was down in order to perform routine cleaning and maintenance. He didn't believe me, so I told him it was all over the internet news and he should log on and look it up if he didn't believe me. Macky Rae logged on to several news sites, searching for the article about the internet outage, until after about a hour he finally got the joke. He gave me a dirty look and said "That was not funny, Dad!"

Easter

The dogs enjoy Easter. Granted, with those excellent dog noses, the Easter egg hunt takes less than a minute to find all the hidden eggs, but we do enjoy the traditional ham dinner.  

One year, as a joke, I served bunny (fried rabbit). Macky's exact words were "Dad, that is wrong on so many levels."

Cinco de Mayo

The dogs do celebrate this holiday. It is a Mexican holiday, and being part Chihuahua they feel obligated to celebrate to observe this day. But if it wasn't for our walk down to the taco truck for lunch I think their interest would wane.
 

I ask Macky Rae if he even knew what the holiday was about, and he told me he believed it had something to do with the invention of tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.

He may be right.

The Dog Days of Summer

 

Me and my dogs celebrate the Dog Says of summer. Although it's origin actually has nothing to do with real dogs, they (my dogs) feel obligated to observe the days, usually by eating assorted dog treats.

According to my youngest dog, Macky Rae (who spends a lot of time on the web), The phrase dog days refers to the sultry days of summer, the dog days of summer are most commonly experienced in the months of July and August, which typically observe the warmest summer temperatures. The Romans referred to the dog days as diēs caniculārēs and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius, brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Big Dog). The Dog Days ran from July 24th through August 24th, and in many cultures today this period is still said to be the time of the Dog Days. The term "Dog Days" was used earlier by the Greeks.

The dog days also have additional significance as St Roch's Feast (Patron St of Dogs), National Dog Day, and Macky Rae's birthday all occur during the Dog Days.

Other holidays they enjoy,

(and a few they don't):

St Roch, Patron Saint of Dogs

Feast of St Roch Day - Aug 17

Saint Roch is the patron saint of dogs. We celebrated by eating dog treats.

National Dog Day - Aug 26

We celebrated by eating dog treats.

National Cat Day - October 29th

We do not celebrate this day for obvious reasons, but we still eat dog treats.

Feast of St. Francis of Assissi Day - Oct 4

St. Francis of Assissi is the patron saint of animals, a group to which my dogs belong. Celebrated by eating dog treats.

St Gertrude of Nivelles Day  - March 17th

Patron Saint of Cats. Not celebrated, obvious reasons, dog treats anyhow.

National Bacon Day - Saturday before Labor Day

My dogs like bacon. A lot. We celebrate National Bacon Day by eating bacon, and bacon flavored dog treats.  

Other food holidays my dogs like are:

• National Pizza Day (Feb 9)
• National Crown Roast of Pork Day (Mar 9)
• National Pig in a Blanket Day (Apr 24)
• National Eat What You Want (May 17)
• National Ham Day (June 26)
• National Hamburger Day (July 28)
• National Cheeseburger Day (Sept 18)
• National Food Day (Oct 25)
• National Cook For Your Pets Day (Nov 1)
• National Sandwich Day (Nov 3) - they prefer ham sandwiches or BLTs.
• National Pizza with the Works Day (Nov 12)
• National Fast Food Day (Nov 16) - they prefer Jack in the Box
• National Hamburger Day (Dec 21) - there are apparently two Hamburger Days

Birthdays...

The dogs enjoy celebrating birthdays. But because birthday cake (sugar) is not really good for dogs (and chocolate is a definite no), we celebrate by getting a birthday Spam - the dogs prefer the bacon-flavored one.

...and Unbirthdays

Recently, Macky Rae came up to me one morning and said "Dad, you know what today is? It is my unbirthday!"

I assume he got that from watching Alice in Wonderland.

"We should celebrate it" he suggested.

Later, I found a old, empty Spam can, and gave it to him.

"What is this? he asked.

"It's an unSpam for your unbirthday."

He did not find that very amusing. After re-examined the can and snorting, he said "It is not even the bacon flavored one."