Cemetery Dawgs....

Oh boy, Danny is coming for a visit today.  He is a dog who had spent his youth living among the tombstones in a cemetery.  He's a good little dogs except when he is in the company of a smaller, fluffier dog. Then his instincts harken back to the tough days of making a living in the grave yard and he tries to snack.

Dogs have a long history in cemeteries.  Whether they are just hanging around waiting for their loved ones corpse to be reanimated like Gryfriars Bobby, serving as a psychopomps in a burial chamber, or making a living out of one.

If you are not familiar with the story of Greyfriars Bobby,   it tells the tale of a little Skye Terrier who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his beloved master John Gray. We visited this grave last time we were in Edinburgh.  This tale also spawned a Disney movie, a book, and a pub!

A psychopomp guides the newly deceased soul to the afterlife.  In Mayan and Aztec cultures, this was a little dog.  Here be Magic has an excellent blog about this from 2017.

Dogs also guard the underworld as in the case of Cerberus, the three headed hound of hell. In Greek and Roman Mythology, He keeps the dead from leaving and the living from entering.  It is also a kick ass microbrewery in Old Colorado City (Looking forward to seeing them at the Heritage Brew Fest next week).  

If you did not read my blog about Dante's Inferno, the Infidel 753 had this to say:

"There is a claim that the name Cerberus comes from the ancient Indo-European word kérberos meaning "spotted". If so, the King of the Underworld literally named his three-headed dog "Spot"." 

So welcome to Danny and his human companion who happens to be my sister. Perhaps we will hang out in a cemetery for old times sake.