I hail from Denver and grew up with cold, snowy winters. My pup Murph, however, was born in the Sunshine State of Florida and grew up with mild winter weather. Late in 2005 we moved to Nashville, so last year was our first winter here. We saw a couple of snows that yielded about a half an inch or so each, but last Friday we woke to a blanket of almost two inches.
Since I work from home and can set my own hours, I decided to take an extra long mid-morning break and take Murph outside to play.
But I wasn’t sure how well this would turn out. Last year Murph was interested in the snow, but he didn’t run around and get all frisky like I’d hoped. And that morning, Wayne had walked Murph first thing and said he’d done his business lickety split and then had high-tailed it back inside, seeming not to like the snow. (Usually he stalls doing his business for an excuse to stay out longer.) So I didn’t know which would take longer –playing outside or unbundling myself when we came back inside.
Outside won. We were out for nearly twenty minutes.
Unlike last year’s snow that was too light for snowball making, this year’s snow was perfect. And hence something new to Murph. I threw him a couple of snowballs, he buried his nose in the snow to find them, and that’s all it took to push his crazy button. Next thing I know he’s racing as fast as he can back and forth across the yard. Then he got the bright idea to search for the assortment of sticks and pine cone toys he finds on walks and stores on our lawn. When he found them, that elicited a new burst of cracker doggin’.
Murph and a snowball…
When he settled down in the snow to chew on a stick, I decided to do something I haven’t done in about 20 years: build a snowman. I had a nice base built and said to Murph, “Look, Puppy, mama’s going to make you a snowman.”
Well, Murph knows the word “look” and got up to come see. I half-expected him to lift his leg on it, but instead he did the other thing he’s notorious for: he started digging through it!
Of course I laughed about it, which encouraged him more. But once it was destroyed he went back to his stick. So I tried again. This time I had the base and the middle complete when Murph took note. (Though this time I didn’t draw his attention; he discovered my creation on his own.) Again he took great delight in ripping it apart with his paws.
So I tried one more time. Got three, albeit small, balls together, and then here came Murph. With so much practice under his belt, he had it knocked down in one fell swoop.
By this time my nose was starting to get a little cold and Murph wasn’t even interested in his sticks anymore, so we called it a day and went in. But judging from the kicking and happy whimpering he did as he slept in my office that afternoon while I worked, I’d say our snow day play was a big success.
Related Articles: