(12) The dog is king

V
The only occasion when I attempted to interpret someone’s horoscope was when I looked at Angela Julian-Day’s in January 1986.
I had enormous doubts: there are many simple and devastating criticisms of astrology.

I had only a rudimentary grasp of how it was supposed to work. She had the planet Pluto in the "intercepted" sign of Leo in the eighth house. Pluto, I had been told, was said to "rule" dogs, amongst many other things. One of the things said to be ruled by Leo is royalty.

I recalled something about the eighth house being the home of the sign of Scorpio, and Scorpio "ruling" animals generally.

I stared at the placing of Pluto in her horoscope, and my beginner’s brain tried to correlate the several factors of the planet, the sign it was in and the house that that sign was to be found in. Dogs ... Royalty ... Animals ...

The phrase "The dog is king" emerged from these thoughts and established itself in my head, demanding attention.

"Does the phrase "The dog is king" mean anything to you?", I asked.
"No", she said.
"Anything at all", I insisted. "Something from a song which you wrote and/or performed or ever heard, a film, a play ,... maybe even a guise at a fancy dress ball ... anything! I just have this feeling that this phrase is pertinent to you."
She thought for a while. "No, I’m sorry. This is meaningless to me."
"Did your family ever have a dog as a pet? "
"Yes. A black labrador."
"What was its name?"
"Rex."