The three-legged limp

Winter, rain, cold, and snow - these are words that my dog, Presley, fully understands. You even begin a sentence or section of a sentence with an “s” and Presley already knows what lies ahead of her. I always thought that dogs had a small brain, had hard times remembering things from day to day, week to week. Winter is only a few months long, it only happens once a year, but she remembers, year after year. There have even been a winter or two in her short life where the snowfall was so minimal that I harder remember it happened.

Presley has never been a fan of the snow. Maybe it has to do with the first winter I had her. I bought Presley from a very strange lady in late January 2006, one week after my 25th birthday. Two weeks following, Presley met a rather large snowfall face first – literately. It’s not easy to house train a puppy, those of you who have done it can vouch for that. A good master lets a puppy out every few hours for the first few weeks or months of ownership, teaching him or her where to go to the bathroom. In our case, it was in our front yard. Presley was so tiny that I didn’t get her a collar or leash for several weeks; even I can out run a 10-week-old puppy. Anyway, back to that second week of life in the Minto house.

It was by Baltimore standards a major snowstorm. As a native of upstate New York, having lived several young years in upstate Maine (any by upstate I mean 1 hour past the end of I-95) and many formative years in south Jersey, I have a very different concept of a major snowstorm. But in Baltimore, things were pretty much shut down. I guess I was happy to have the luxury of spending the day in my pajamas with my new puppy; we can call that bonding. Presley had to go outside, as all puppies do so I opened the door and out she ran, face first into the 8-inch snowdrift that had formed on the opposite side of our front door. BAM – face full of snow.

Now, three short years later, Presley is much more cautious and aware of the white, ice cold, solid precipitation that can be found falling from the sky or gathered on the ground. Presley typically will hold her bathroom breaks for days if needed, just to avoid the snow. There have been many times when she hasn’t even made it off the front stoop; but when she does, she does a three-legged limp. Her paws get so cold from the sidewalk, snow and ice, that she lifts them up, often times forgetting that she needs them to stand on. Last night, she had enough guts to lift up three legs, standing still, teetering on just one freeze cold paw. Cute as a button, shivering like a leaf, scared like she had made a bad decision. She growls, I scoop her up, she licks my nose and we head home. I had to do all the walking.

How many more days of winter?