This story is about dogs.

It is not about our four-legged, tailing-wagging puppy dogs. Nor is it about those plump, juicy hot dogs that taste so good on the grill at this time of the year. Nor is it about the dog-legged course in a golf game, and it is certainly not in reference to a description that a man might give about a woman after a few drinks at the bar.These dogs I am referring to have to do with the sun.This is about the phenomenon in the sky called sun dogs. If you have been lucky enough to see them in the sky, you may refer to them as little rainbows near the sun on a sunny day.Last month we were at an outdoor afternoon concert. We saw the most brilliant and bright sun dogs in the sky. As I pointed them out to the others around us, I was astonished to find out some had never seen them before, and others did not know what they were called.Growing up in the late '50s and early '60s on the South Dakota prairie, we didn't have the weather channel to give us a minute-by-minute account of current weather happenings, 10-day forecasts or "forecast on the eights" as we do now. My dad was our weatherman, and he would "read the sky" for our daily weather reports. He always would point out the sun dogs, and we would watch them until they faded, just marveling at the beauty that can be found in the sky.Sun dogs are also called mock suns, phantom suns or their scientific name solar parhelia. Parhelia is a Greek word meaning "beside the sun." They are members of the large family of halos.Look for them on sunny afternoons about an hour before sunset. They are bright spots on either side of the sun when the sun is low on the horizon. They are most likely to appear when thin cirrus clouds are between us and the sun. They appear when ice crystals form in the upper atmosphere. The ice crystals bend the sunlight and cause a reflected image of the sun to appear on one or both sides of the sun. In full brilliance they can last as long as 15 minutes to half an hour. They disappear almost instantly when the sun dips below the critical angle. The larger sun dogs have a bright spot in the middle and colors that change to yellows and reds near the edges. Some will show the full spectrum of the rainbow. Sun dogs can be faint or almost as bright as the sun itself.They mostly appear in the western sky but can occasionally be seen in the eastern sky about half an hour after sunrise. They can be seen anywhere in the world, but they are not always obvious or bright.Sun dogs can be seen in any season, but fall time can be more popular to spot them as the sun is lower in the sky earlier in the day.Folklore has had some interesting myths on what seeing a sun dog in the sky actually meant.Old-timers say seeing sun dogs in the afternoon signal fair weather the following day.Native Americans related that it was a bright spot of light glowing beside the sun that looked like a dog leaping through a ring of flames. Now I have seen many sun dogs, and I have never seen that image, but I do keep looking. Native folklore also says that if you spot a sun dog while on a journey you will experience good luck and many rewards.The ancient Greeks believed that seeing sun dogs in the morning meant a storm was on the way. That was true then and remains true today. Sun dogs are a good indicator that the weather conditions are likely to change in 18 to 36 hours.A note of caution when you are searching the sky for a sun dog. You will be looking near the direction of the sun, so be sure to block the sun with something like your hand. Obviously avoid looking directly at the sun.So you can take your pick as to what the meaning of a sun dog is to you, but I'm pretty sure you will agree that one thing is for sure ... they are a pretty sight to see in our heavenly skies.