Real Snow Dogs Carry On

A real zoo out there...

 It was a real zoo out there last night. Snowing monkeys and elephants. You can even see them in the window. 
It came down heavy.  The rain  you have to shovel.  Kids and tow-truck operators love it. If you live in the Northern US or Canada, you know all about it.   

  It was  supposed to be a significant snow fall, an Albert Clipper, they call it. Maybe a foot or more.  A real snowstorm. Nice dry, hard snow.  Some nice drifting and blowing,  whiteout highway conditions.  I don't mind, let it snow, we have not received much snow this year at all. Weird, mild winters do that, but more importantly  it reminded me of the last snowfall.

A few weeks ago we managed to get a few inches of the soft, really sticky kind of white stuff  mild banana-belt  winters are famous for.  Surprise, surprise, we  call  that stuff 'snow', too.  Incredibly clever northerners  reportedly have many names for different kinds of snow.   If I had more names for the stuff,  they might not be printable here at Incoming Bytes.  No matter, labeled or not, there wasn't  really much of it until yesterday. 

 I forgot about the last blizzard.  Cold and wet, but sticky.  Sticky, perfect snow-man-making  snowball stuff. Fun stuff.  

Winter might be a nuisance or  a dog's life to us, but it doesn't bother  Tilly the tall;  she is a long-legged woofer  and her short, smooth coat hunter's coat doesn't collect snow easily . She shakes it off in a flash, bouncing through deep snow like she's on stilts. The snow seldom touches her almost-pink-tan we-wanna-rub-please? bare-belly.  She's tall.

Tilly the Tall

In related news, though,  the other  dog is constructed with completely different architecture. She's short-legged in stature with minimal under-carriage clearance. Ebony is  jet-black.  It's hard to get a picture of her
Now savvy drivers know that if the undercarriage  of  4x4   a.k.a. (Rusty-was-a- Jeep)  gets hung up, nothing happens.  Ain't gonna happen either. especially  37 miles from  a phone booth.  Condemned to sit with all four wheels spinning happily in the air at times, it's no wonder we like camping better.  Be prepared for any experience.  No matter. 

   Ebony the short pushes her undercarriage through  the snow,  something  like a  height-challenged-hellion with teeth.  If it gets deep, she plays athlete,  powerfully hopping  up and over--well, that is, until she becomes grounded with  carry-on baggage.

 Her Achille's heel is long, ultra-fine hair on the undercarriage that magically  builds and  collects snowballs.  A real arsenal.  Perfect for throwing at door-to-door salesmen,  but they tend to  jamb dedicated doggie-drive systems.  
 Keep in mind if 'ya wanna duplicate this experiment with your pooch,  it has to  be snowman-making snow, the special fluffy, sticky kind, and 'ya  gotta grow the right hair on the dog first.

Ebony starts with  small snowballs....

 
 The  snowballs grow bigger and bigger as she trundles about playing in the custom-ordered  snow.  Sooner or later, without fail, the pretty pup has difficulty walking with the huge snowballs that magically attach themselves on the undercarriage.  Reminds me of watching fat  honeybees collecting pollen. Between the knees comes to mind.
 Eventually the pup is waddling,  close to  grounded.  Any bigger and she would be hung up completely, paws waving wildly. No traction.  No-go. 
   

And ends up with big ones...

        

Sooner or later we have to rescue her, haul her into the bathtub and melt off  a half- dozen  4" snowballs with warm water.  I do wish it was that easy to get the old car out of  the snowbank in the driveway.



Oh well. There's always the tow-truck --or Tilly the tow-dog  as the case may be.  

 We might need both.  It's bright and sunny now,  the Alberta clipper wore itself out,   but it graciously left  about 18"  of  new,  improved white rain  to contend with.   
My  choice,  plow, shovel or stay stuck. I strategically plug in the diesel tractor with the snow blower on it, -- and hope it starts. 
Meantime, Real snow dogs carry on. The boss is staying in, schmoozing with her teddy  bear. 
Good dog. Smart dog. After all,  it's a zoo out there.  

  Ebony Schmoozing with her Teddy bear                 photo credit:  wlk photography

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