Scene through our porch door window. The dogs and I on the inside looking out.
Beautiful to look at… a traditional New England winter scene. But… at times like this, our dogs are our first concern. Unlike us, they must go outside. And, getting them outside can be challenging in times of severe storms. The good thing: we haven’t lost power here in Westhampton, Massachusetts. Not yet, anyway. And, it’s not snowing anymore. Hopefully, it has stopped for good.
Deep snow is always the hardest on senior dogs. That’s our beloved James. After I pushed the door open about a foot and squeezed out to shovel off the step and a small area about six square feet, I let the dogs out. Poor James looked out on the sea of white and made an about-turn back into the house. Lily and Annie, the English Setters, used my prep area to do their business in a hurry and scurried back in. Meanwhile, Australian Labradoodle Violet bounced around the entire dog pen (roughly 30′ x 30′) like a kangaroo out on a holiday! I think, I hope, she peed somewhere in the snow. Once Annie, Lily, and Violet were back inside, I managed to cajole James back outside. Hmmm, he now had something in the snow to sniff prompting him to pee. Then, right back in he went.
Dogs now fed, I’ll have my breakfast, grab my snowshoes, and head out to make lots of tracks for the dogs to use in their pen. Then, I’ll try to open the side door to the back hayfield. Making a track around the perimeter of the field, then criss-cross diagonals has always worked well, giving the dogs plenty of exercise area. Doing the snowshoe routine is fun for all. I love getting out in the newly fallen snow on the snowshoes and the dogs have a blast following behind. The thought of it brings back wonderful memories of our dear little Trudi who, even at the age of 15+ years was out there partying with the pack as we played the snowshoe game.
If you’ve got dogs – and you’ve got snowshoes, drop the shovel and put ’em on – and have some FUN! (If you don’t have the snowshoes – click on the LLBean website and order a pair.)