A merry go round of dogs and cats

  Pet astrology is fun and works better than you might expect even if you can only find a rough approximation of their sun sign. Pedigree or breeder friends, even better, can proffer, the exact time.

Tashi, small fluffball Lahsa apso, 17 September 2025 8.15pm Aberdeen, has a busy, busy 6^th house Virgo Sun and vocal Mercury opposition a not-always practical 12^th house Saturn. A flashy and attention-demanding 5^th house Leo Moon and Leo Venus give her confidence; and a 4^th house Jupiter hints at happy-home-time. Plus a determined, get-my-own-way 10^th house Pluto trine a wayward 1^st house Uranus may make her tricky to train.

Prior to this 4 kilo squiggle, was a 40 kilo grey Weimaraner, named Turtur (colour like a dove), 5 May 2012 11.30pm Salernes, France. A boisterous Sun Jupiter in Taurus in the entertaining 5^th house she insisted on being centre of attention at all times – greeting everyone with rapturous glee and knocking them over, stealing canapes and anything else that was not stored in a locked cupboard. She had an Earth Grand Trine of Sun trine Mars trine Pluto and was all physical vitality demanding endless exercise of 10 kilometres a day at least. And for a breed known at best for what is politely called ‘dominance’, her Mars Pluto could be seriously defiant and strong-minded.

 When I moved from France back to England, tr Uranus was conjunct her Sun as she was wrenched away from her beloved vineyards where she could be let off the lead and went snake hunting, non-poisonous there mercifully. Weimaraners were bred to hunt wild boar but they only came out at night in that region and she only met one who got away. In rural England she had to make do with diving into hedges on the end of a lead and coming out with a poor assassinated pheasant.

Before her were two brother felines – Camembert and Roquefort, 14 April 2005 4am Port Vendres, France, whom the vet unkindly dubbed les chats du guttieres – alley cats. They had charming and high vitality 3^rd house Sun Venus in Aries though they were very different temperaments – one pushy and the other quieter. Sun Venus trine Pluto with Mars Neptune on the midpoint did give them chutzpah. Sadly when the transiting North Node was conjunct their Pluto and tr Saturn was conjunct their Jupiter, one ran away over a house move and the quieter, sweeter brother died suddenly a few weeks later of a heart attack.

Before that – Sophie, a Maine Coon, 5 July 1994 11.47pm London, was clingy affectionate and not even-tempered – a Cancerian with a Moon Mars in Gemini. She co-habited with a midget rescue tortoiseshell called Peppermint who had to have been Gemini since she never stopped vocalizing and disappeared every night out of the cat flap to go terrorizing the neighbourhood cats.

Back a step on the pet ladder there was an English pointer, exquisitely beautiful but oh so stupid and neurotic, named Dizzy, who was terrified of Slasher (renamed Tom Pom) a stray black cat, bruised and battered who moved in without an invitation and stayed.

 First pets were two Jack Russells – one called Demon (not by me) who was anything but demonic in nature, a sweetie, except if you were a rat or a rabbit.  Totty bought to keep him company turned out to be a fiend and had to be rehomed.   

Pets have a short lifespan compared to human and when they go it is painful. But the consolation is that they have had a good life and it is their time.

“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.” Bernard Williams

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.” Garrison Keillor

“Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails.” Max Eastman

“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” Charles de Gaulle

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.” Robert A. Heinlein

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx