The other day I happened to see a story on TV about a five-pound Chihuahua named "Zoey" who intervened in a confrontation between a rattlesnake and a toddler and perhaps saved the child's life. At the least the pup prevented serious injury to the tot. That got me to thinking about the long, extensive history we humans have with dogs and how much they influence our lives.

I couldn't include cats in this column; there would just be too much information. They will possibly be a topic for another article, especially with the current news about Oscar, the "furry reaper." Oscar, who lives in a nursing home in Connecticut, apparently has the uncanny ability to predict when one of the residents is going to die.

Back to dogs. Although there is controversy in the scie.jpgic community about what the first domesticated animal was -- some say dogs, some say cattle -- dogs have been living closely with humans for thousands of years. They were mummified and placed in tombs with Egyptian royalty and have been found in many other ceremonial burial places.

In Egyptian pictographs, the sun god Osiris was depicted with the head of a dog, and they believed that the flooding of the Nile was due to the power of Sirius, the Dog Star. The day on which this star was first seen to rise at dawn was New Year's Day for the Egyptians as well as the Athenians.

Gods with canine attributes abounded in the ancient world, and many gods had dogs accompanying them. Orion is accompanied on his heavenly hunting trip by Canis Major and Canis Minor. The name for Sirius in Arabic is Al Kalb al Jabbar, or the Dog of the Giant. The Romans pictured Sirius as a dog and associated it with other nearby stars.

Perhaps the fact that Sirius is the not only the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (it's the dog's nose), but also the brightest star that can be seen in the northern hemisphere, indicates the importance ancient people bestowed on dogs.

The sun enters that part of the sky where the dog constellations are during the hot summer months, and the ancients thought that the heat of Sirius was added to the heat of the sun. To this day, those excruciatingly hot days are referred to as "dog days."

Dogs assist shepherds in controlling their flocks and save people lost in avalanches or other disasters. They were at Ground Zero shortly after the tragedy of Sept. 11 searching for survivors. They guide the blind and provide therapy sessions when they visit hospitals and nursing homes.

Dogs have also provided invaluable services during wartime. General Patton had a bull terrier. It is my understanding that many dog handlers in World War II were able to bring their canine friends back home with them, but in 1948 the Army classified dogs as equipment. So soldiers in later conflicts had to leave the dogs behind. There is currently a movement to erect a war dog monument. These canines are attributed with saving tens of thousands of lives.

It never ceases to amaze me how even dogs that have been grossly mistreated can quickly forgive and forget when treated with a little understanding and kindness.

I will pause every now and then to reflect on dogs as friends, protectors, assistants and companions. We share this planet with many species and should be the stewards, not the abusers, of what Mother Nature has given us.

T&D Correspondent Loretta Demko can be reached by e-mail at eeshtenem@yahoo.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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