One cell of 144
Leo + Year of the Dog
Two calendars cross at your birth date. This is the cell where Leo meets the Year of the Dog, and the animal that lives in it.
Answer first
What animal is a Leo born in the Year of the Dog?
A Leo born in the Year of the Dog is the Sunbittern. The month and day set the Leo half, the birth year sets the Dog half, and the crossing points at one cell in a grid of 144. Read the Sunbittern for the full reading of that cell.
The two halves
What each calendar brings
The Leo half
Leo runs from July 23 to August 22, fixed Fire under the Sun. You warm whatever faces you. The heat stays lit whether or not anyone is clapping, and people quietly plan their winters around it. Read Leo in the Western wing.
The Dog half
The Dog is the eleventh branch and runs with the Tiger and the Horse, the openhearted movers. You guard what you love with your whole schedule. Recent Dog years are 1994, 2006 and 2018. Read the Year of the Dog.
The crossing
What Leo and the Dog make together
Leo brings a heat that holds the center of the room. The Dog year brings the watch that never quite goes off duty. The Sunbittern carries both at once.
You stay plain and quiet for as long as nothing is wrong, and the instant something you love is threatened, you become impossible to miss.
The Dog runs in a trine with the Tiger and the Horse. Held to the same Leo season, those years give the Harpy Eagle and the Paradise Riflebird, the two crossings whose engines run closest to yours.
The boundary
Born near the boundary?
The Chinese year does not turn on January 1. It turns at the lunar New Year, somewhere between late January and mid February, so a birthday in those weeks can belong to the animal before this one. The year finder checks the real date for any year you give it.
Common questions
Questions about this crossing
Is the Sunbittern the same as being a Leo?
Leo is half of it. The Sunbittern is the specific crossing of Leo with the Year of the Dog, one cell out of 144. Two people can share a Sun sign and carry different animals, because the birth year changes the second half.
What if I was born in January or February of a Dog year?
The Chinese year turns at the lunar New Year, which lands between late January and mid February. A birthday in those weeks can belong to the previous animal, so the year finder checks the real boundary before the grid names your crossing.
Which crossings share the Sunbittern's trine?
The Dog runs with the Tiger and the Horse. Held to the same Leo dates, those years give the Harpy Eagle and the Paradise Riflebird, the two animals whose instincts sit closest to the Sunbittern's.
One step away
Neighboring crossings
Or start over at the full 12 by 12 grid, or read how the crossing works.