DOG TALK WITH FROSTY LOU – IT’S WET OUTSIDE!!
By Frosty Lou 
with help from Will Dursens
What the heck was going on a few days ago?
Now as a puppy, I really don’t mind a little bit of wet and I really do have fun playing in the snow but combining the two and then freezing half of it was almost a bit much for my pleasure.
When Papa kindly sent me free on Saturday morning to roam the back forty while I found my place to do my duty, I noticed right away that something was wrong – like in very wet wrong!!
My normal wondering path around the yard was now more like I was stepping into an outdoor bathtub, there seemed to be water everywhere! If Papa is kind enough maybe he will share some pictures I know he took of the mess. 
Normally I love to sniff around my family’s shed in the far northwest corner, but today I couldn’t even get within 10-feet of it because it was now an island amongst a lot of water, and from my puppy standing it looked like a mini lake to me.
The vast amount of grassland that I rule has shrunk now to maybe half the amount of normal, unless of course I wanted to go swimming and you can trust me, I may not mind some water but not to the amount I was finding on Saturday morning.
After finally finding a safe spot to do my duty, I scampered back into the house and after getting a ‘doing my duty’ snack, I pestered Papa to explain what the heck was happening to my outside domain.
And then it got worse!! When the family heard me ringing the bells to go out later in the day to do my duty again, I scampered outside only to come to an abrupt stop and much to my surprise – the part of the back forty not under water was now covered with a nice thin layer of the white stuff my family calls snow. 
What the heck, though snow is okay as I can have fun with it for a short amount of time before my tender paws get too cold and I need to get inside to let Papa or Yia Yia help warm them up.
Then we get to Sunday morning and yet another ‘shake my head’ in wondering just what was happening as I went to prance out the back door to go do my duty, I nearly slide right off the back-porch steps because of ice!!
Yes, the back forty was still covered in snow and water but now where the water was, I found a new adventure to deal with – ice, like in ice everywhere the water had been the day before. 
One good thing I discovered about the ice though was I could now wander all around my back forty like normal, only much more tenderly so that my legs didn’t find me doing the doggy splits because like with most human friends, doing those unexpectedly can hurt.
No running today but getting the bearings on where to do my duty was a bit difficult as my normal spots of duty were under snow, water and ice and even my keen sniffer was having some difficulty with that.
While I did enjoy pushing the snow with my nose, so it rolled up into little balls of joy, the ice proved to me to be not much fun at all. If I want to have fun trying to run and spin my paws getting traction, let’s do it inside on the family’s linoleum floor where it’s much warmer and I will hear the giggles from Papa as I put on a ‘getting traction show’.
Oh, one last thing. With the snow, water and now ice – boy was I having to watch out for how fast I would race back into the house when it was time, the back porch step was a sheet of ice and I nearly slid off it twice and as I went to bounce up into the house itself, the lack of traction caused me to almost catch my under parts on the edge of the doorway and that was not a feel good moment at all.
While it has warmed up enough to melt the snow, the ice is back to being water which will take awhile to go away due to the lack of sunshine and warmer weather.
But I hear Papa and Yia Yia always talking about winter weather, so I am guessing that I am just dealing with my first winter weather stuff and maybe just need to put the lessons learned into my memory boxes to pull back up next year.
For now, I guess that is all I have. Until the next time when I have a few more barks of life for another posting of Dog Talk – Happy Barking with Frosty Lou.
(Copyright @ 2019 by CrossDove Writers. No part of this write may be used, copied or printed without written consent from CrossDove Writers, Frosty Lou and Will Dursens.)
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