{"id":27,"date":"2010-03-14T18:30:49","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/?page_id=27"},"modified":"2010-03-30T09:04:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T09:04:21","slug":"myths-legends","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/?page_id=27","title":{"rendered":"The Tale of The Big Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Star<\/a>

Canis Major and Sirius in the night sky<\/p><\/div>\n

Since time immemorial Canis Major, the Big Dog, has guarded all canines <\/em>on earth, wild and domestic.\u00c2\u00a0 He watches over them through periods of hardship and persecution, as well as times of plenty and contentment and, when finally their time on earth comes to an end, he provides them with a place in the Great Kennel in the Sky.\u00c2\u00a0 Here they loose the aches and pains brought about by their years on earth and the hurts inflicted on them by humans float away.\u00c2\u00a0 They live with the joy and innocence of puppies and spend their days chasing butterflies and gnawing juicy bones.\u00c2\u00a0 By night they snuggle down, contentedly in warm hideaways, filled with huge squidgy cushions where they are safe and at peace<\/p>\n

In the earliest days of domestication, dogs chose to share their lives with humans who appreciated their help and company, giving them a place by their hearths, whilst honouring and respecting them as partners. Each contributed according to their own abilities, with neither taking more than their share.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Humans however became greedy; they wanted the dogs to hunt for longer and longer without giving them a fair share of what they brought back.\u00c2\u00a0 As the humans became rich, sleek and fat the dogs grew lean and mangy, but still they gave their loyalty to the humans because they had a great love in their hearts, which not even the selfishness of the humans could quench.<\/p>\n

When the humans saw the dogs remained loyal their hearts were not softened, instead they commended themselves on their shrewdness and worked the dogs still harder.\u00c2\u00a0 On their return from hunting, the men handed the dogs over to the women, who took them into the fields to herd their animals.\u00c2\u00a0 By night, when they had finished their meagre food rations, they were no longer invited to sit by the fire to share a time of peace and contentment with the men and their families, but instead, they were turned out to guard the homes of the humans.\u00c2\u00a0 Even then however, although the dogs remained loyal the iron in the human\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s souls did not lessen, but rather they thought of new ways to exploit their companions.<\/p>\n

Dogs were forced to bait wild animals – badgers, bears and bulls – which sickened them, but they pitied the human\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ignorance and still they loved them.\u00c2\u00a0 When the humans saw this they hated the dogs for having a love that was beyond their understanding and they became consumed with a great evil and determined to destroy this love.\u00c2\u00a0 They therefore made the dogs fight each other even unto death.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of this many of the dogs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hearts were broken and they had no more love left to give, so some just lay down and died, whilst others turned on the humans and hurt them; even the most loyal becoming timid and afraid.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the Big Dog looked down from the sky and he was overcome with a great pity.\u00c2\u00a0 He saw how the dogs for whom he cared so much had been tortured and abused and he wept.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where those first enormous tears landed on the earth a great eruption took place and Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog, and Sirius came forth.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the Big Dog and his new companions came to walk the earth and set about putting right the many wrongs mankind had set in motion.<\/p>\n

When the purging of the great evil on earth had been completed the Big Dog wanted to make sure that never again would dogs be treated with such wicked cruelty.\u00c2\u00a0 To this end he took away their adaptability and to each kind he gave a special skill, in order that different dogs would be required for each task, thus allowing others to rest. \u00c2\u00a0To retrievers, he gave soft mouths, so they could fetch the birds humans brought down from the sky.\u00c2\u00a0 To collies he provided the gift of herding flocks of sheep and cattle.\u00c2\u00a0 Even the smallest dogs had their own gifts.\u00c2\u00a0 The little terriers could catch rats and other vermin whilst the minute Chihuahuas, the tiniest of all dogs were given a very special talent – that of killing snakes.\u00c2\u00a0 Thus humans would only be able to work with the dogs that had the skills appropriate to there lives without being so easily able to exploit them as they had done before.<\/p>\n

When the Big Dog had finished his work he returned to the immensity of his celestial kennel taking with him those dogs whose hearts had broken, together with those who were too distressed to go on living with humans, so they might live in eternal peace.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the Big Dog looked down on what he had done and saw the humans working in harmony with the dogs and he was pleased.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will all now be well?\u00c2\u00a0 …\u00c2\u00a0 More comming soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since time immemorial Canis Major, the Big Dog, has guarded all canines on earth, wild and domestic.\u00c2\u00a0 He watches over them through periods of hardship and persecution, as well as times of plenty and contentment and, when finally their time … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garniesdogblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}