Attention all dogs! Today, February 29, 2024, is Leap Day! The day the Four Paws on the Floor Rule does not apply! Yep, you read that right! It isn’t an urban myth! Leap Day does exist! Approximately every four years dogs do not have to obey the Four Paws on the Floor Rule, and instead can spend the day leaping with reckless abandon and glee! 

From what I understand, in 45 BC Roman general Julius Caesar was a huge dog lover, and penciled in Leap Day onto his calendar every four years, so dogs could let loose and have fun. However, as we all know, too much of a good thing isn’t good for us. Apparently all that leaping every four years was causing the earth to get off track. Therefore in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decided to make a new calendar that only allowed Leap Days to fall on years that could be evenly divided by 4. However, if that year can also be evenly divided by 100, then it isn’t a Leap Year. Yet if it is divisible by 400, then it is alright to add a Leap Day that year. You see, Pope Gregory XIII was a strong supporter of the Four Paws on the Floor Rule, and knew that dogs are notoriously bad at math. His goal was to confuse us, and hopefully make us err on the side of caution and not leap.

Well Pope Gregory XIII never factored in the dissemination of knowledge through the internet, making it easy for dogs to know just when they can start leaping without repercussions. Therefore today I am here to tell dogs that you can leap onto that couch, ignoring the Four Paws on the Floor Rule! Go ahead and exuberantly greet humans with all four paws in the air! Or simply fly through the air with the greatest of ease, because today is Leap Day!

Chuck Billy’s Editorial Response: Asa is correct that today is Leap Day. He’s also surprisingly correct about that evenly divided by 100 calculation. But he has no historical proof that Julius Caesar was a dog lover, or that Pope Gregory XIII was a stickler for dog rules. In fact, there is no evidence that a Leap Day loophole for dog rules even exists. So if you’re a dog reading this, please follow the Four Paws on the Floor Rule if you want to avoid getting in trouble, and spending this extra day in a time out!