"The dark star associated with Sirius was accidentally discovered on the evening of January 31, 1862 in Cambridgeport Massachusetts. Alvan Graham Clark and his father Alvan Clark, two members of the famous family of nineteenth century telescope makers, were testing the lens for an 18 ½-inch telescope, the largest refracting telescope in the world at the time. The Clarks were not aware of the significance of their discovery at the time but did report it to George Phillips Bond, Director of the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge Massachusetts. Using the Harvard’s 15-inch “Great Refractor” Bond succeeded in observing the small companion exactly one week later. Bond immediately recognized the significance of the discovery and promptly published the news in scientific papers in the US and in Europe. "
Any point on the sky has an infinite number of stars. Not really infinite but, for the sake of argument. Since Sirius moves back and forth, any background star will appear to orbit it. Since the number of stars is infinite, there could be a lot of suitable background star to attach a story to as Sirius moves back and forth.
Factors that could contribute to sense of continuity, periods when "Sirius B" cannot be seen because it is too close to Sirius. That would be a convenient break when the consensus, a bunch of people all imitating one another, could find another background star, consider it "Sirius B", and watch as it also moves back and forth (when Sirius moves back and forth, giving the illusion that some random background star is orbiting it. )
There is no shortage of stars,