Dogs have ruled our life

Thanks to the Chinese Lunar New Year as the Year of the Fire Dog. We have found out no animal has dogged, meaning hounded, our life and our language more than the one called man's best friend, the dog.

In order that this country does not go to the dogs, meaning it does not go into ruins, let us work like a dog, vigilant, hardworking, and loyal.

Another meaning of lazy dog is lazy bone. But in the American military lingo, it is a bomb that explodes in mid-air throwing pellets and fragmentation in a wider area.

And let us not allow a black dog, meaning a devil, to walk over us.

* * *

Here are different dog terms. They are interesting on a Dog Year.

Dog days are days of extreme heat. To live a dog's life is to live in misery. When a thing is extremely cheap it's called dog cheap.

And there are more dog idioms. These we use everyday.

Dog-eat-dog means a ruthless competition. Doggone is an American euphemism for Goddamn. Have you read William Carleton's poem "Farm Ballads?" Doggoneit, if you haven't.

"But when the choir got up to sing,/ I couldn't catch a word,/ They sang the doggonest thing,/ That nobody ever heard."

* * *

To be in a dog house is to be in disgrace. Read J.M. Barie's "Peter Pan." That's how he describes the life of Mr. Darling.

A dog in a night time is an unwitting tool to a crime. Read Conan Doyle's "Silver Blaze" and the conversation between Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Gregory.

In every crime there is always a dog in a night time. Or the French calls it "Cherchez la femme," or look for a woman. Well, you know the story of renegade Captain Nick Faeldon and lawyer Captain Candy Rivas. Relative of my friend Vic, the Vicar General?

* * *

A dog's sleep is a light nap. The dogs of war are the wartime horrors of fire, death, and famine.

To call off one's dogs is for a leader, politicians especially, stopping their men from attacking the enemy.

The other term is let the sleeping dogs lie.

These are not new words. These are the idioms we use everyday. But let us take a break by having some hot dogs which are not dogs from the fire but sausages placed between bread.

* * *

I am not through yet. I just like the Chinese and especially my Chinese friends who I don't want to mention because they are very many of them and I might miss some. And I also like their tradition.

So, here goes. Let me give you the dogs in history and literary classics.

Argos was the dog of Odysseus (Ulysses) in Homer's "Odyssey." When Odysseus came home from the Trojan War, he arrived in the Palace incognito to find out who were courting his wife.

Nobody knew him except his dog Argos who was so happy his master came home but died of heart attack because of too much joy.

Carvall was King Arthur's favorite hound. Hercules had two dogs, Gorgiottos and Orthos.

* * *

Writers' dogs were remembered because they wrote of them.

Lord Byron's dog was Boatswain. And Alexander Pope's dog was Bruce. Boy was a hound dog of Prince Rupert that got killed in the Battle of Marston Moor in 1664.

Dash was the dog of Charles Lamb. The young Queen Victoria also had a dog named Dash.

Diamond was the dog of Sir Isaac Newton. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog was Flush. Matthew Arnold had two dogs. One was Geist to whom he dedicated his poem "Geist's Grave" and his other dog was Kaiser for whom he also wrote another poem "Kaiser Dead."

Giallo was Walter Landor's dog while Hamlet was the dog of Sir Walter Scott. Maida was also Sir Walter Scott's favorite dog.

Rufus was Sir Winston Churchill's favorite poodle.

* * *

There are more dogs of history and literature. Just don't forget, not all the days are yours. Every one has his day. Wrote Shakespeare in "Hamlet": "Let Hercules himself do what he may,/ The cat will mew,/ And each dog will have its day."

The world is not only a rat trace. It is also a dog race. I remember in our grade school, we had a song, "Bow-wow-wow, Come on my little master,/ Come let's race to see who runs the faster."

The thing is don't let the dog outrun you.

* * *

Retired RTC Judge Emma C. Labayen had her birthday bash last Sunday, five years after her retirement. After the witnesses, the lawyers, the judges were through, I had the hardest task of rendering the decision.

The decision was she was 50. But her fellow Forty Niners, Baby Puey, Toti Ramos, and Quitoy Feria objected and asked for reconsideration. They said, Judge Labayen was only 40. And the argument, said Toti, was "Res ipsa loquitor," a Latin term meaning "The thing speaks for itself.

The decision was final and executory. Not appealable.*

back to top