Dog Days

TigerBlog has worked at Princeton for a long time, right? 

It's hard for him to remember something that made him smile as much as the email he received Friday from Alexis Branagan, the Communications and Event coordinator for Princeton University Concerts. The subject was the fact that International Dog Day was approaching (in fact, it was yesterday).

Here is what her email said:

"In celebration of the occasion and as a nod to Princeton University Concerts' "Listen Your Way" campaign, I'm planning social media posts with photos of dogs listening their way. Please send me photos of your dogs, preferably ones with alert ears, attentive eyes...something that suggests they're listening."

The email was sent to everyone on the University communications group, from every department, including, obviously, athletics. It took about five minutes for the first dog picture to come through — and then the rest of the day was one dog picture after another. 

In the end, Alexis got back 70 pictures of dogs, of all shapes, sizes, colors, breeds and names. She also got a picture of one bunny and this email: 

"Just want to chime in and say that I'm preparing NOW for Oct. 29 so I can have the purrfect photo on hand. This is so cool. Made my Friday!"

The last part was a pretty standard response. Alexis seemed to make everyone's Friday. 

In case you missed it, here is one of three videos that Alexis produced from all the pictures:

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These, of course, are the Dog Days of summer. They refer to a time in summer when the days are hot and humid, and time seems to move a little slower.

TigerBlog didn't realize that the term originates from "the period following the heliacal rising of the star system 'Sirius," known colloquially as the 'Dog Star,' which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs and bad luck."

At least that's what it says on Wikipedia.

Oh, and mad dogs? Not in Alexis' videos. All 70 of them were happy and clearly listening intently.

There are no Cat Days of summer. Princeton has long been more of a cat place than a dog place, at least in its nickname. 

Princeton has long been the "Tigers," back to the 1870s. This is from the Princetonian (not yet Daily) of Nov. 21, 1879:

It may seem a small matter to notice editorially, yet it is well to get at the Tightness of things, however unimportant they may appear. Our College rocket, either through ignorance or carelessnees, is usually given in a fearfully and wonderfully mangled manner. The reporters have it "Phiz-boom-ah," "Yiss-boom-bah," "Siss-boom-bah," and various other unheard-of and indistinguishable sounds. We even heard a Freshman tearing his throat on " Sick-boom-bah." Giving the hissing sound incorrectly and beginning the final syllable with a b sound spoils the effect of the cheer. Our rocket, when given properly, is unsurpassed by any cheer we have ever heard, and since we have a good one let us make the most of it and give it properly. " Tiger s-s-s-s boom ah-h-h," a forcible tiger, a savage hiss with clenched teeth and a rousing boom, ending with a heartfelt ah. If we had talent and material we could give illustrations of a Princeton man (old graduate) in the different stages of the rocket. Unfortunately we have not. Stand before your mirror and practice for the coming game.

If you don't know how Princeton became the Tigers, it had to do with 1) the color orange, as in "William of Nassau of the House of Orange," 2) football jerseys that were black with orange stripes and 3) a newspaper story that credited Princeton with "fighting like Tigers." 

It just stuck from there. 

Even if Princeton hadn't been the "Tigers," it still almost surely would have been the "Lions." The Class of 1879 donated two bronze Lions that sat outside of Nassau Hall until 1911, when they were replaced by the Tigers that are there now and moved to outside of Wilson College.

Again, those are cats. 

The dogs? 

Well, TB asked Alexis if she thought her project would get as many dog pictures as it did and as many "OMG I love this" responses as it did. Here was what she said:

In honor of International Dog Day, I wanted to create a video of dog photos set to music as a fun way to give a nod to the upcoming Princeton University Concerts (PUC) 2024-25 concert season and to the playful spirit of dogs. I thought reaching out to the Princeton Campus Communicators Network (PCCN) would be a good way for me to reach beyond just the few colleagues I knew who have dogs, and it would also help bring some new attention to PUC!

I know people love their dogs, so I expected that soliciting dog photos to a large listserv would cause a bit of a fun buzz, but I didn't expect quite such a robust and enthusiastic response! I was hoping for maybe 10 photos! Over 70 people responded! I also did not expect so many people to "reply all" to the PCCN listserv. That made it all the more joyous. People from departments and organizations all over campus were exchanging comments about their cute companions. It was a nice way to step out of the day-to-day and sort of wave hello to both unacquainted and familiar colleagues.

And there you have it. 

The Dog Days of summer on a Cat-centric campus.