Week 19

This being the year when I qualify for a bus pass, the recent weather has been an ideal opportunity to practice for the “Miserable old so-and-so” award. Buses not running, post not delivered, schools closing at the drop of a hat, roads not cleared, “When I was a lad we had three times this amount of snow and we all carried on”, cold, wet, miserable….

Then there was Lewi.

To him, the snow was a magic wonderland. From barking at it as it fell, rolling in it, to running round the garden in total, uncontrolled delight, he has thoroughly enjoyed the strange new world.

One of his jobs is to keep the two large pampas grass plants (that frame the gate to the pool) kept well trimmed. So, having got over the first surprise of the grass and everything having turned white, he got to work. Under the plant, grab hold of a stem and pull. Down came the snow from the leaves above him, nearly burying him. He shot across the lawn, barked and went straight back for more. Why is it that when things like that happen, your camera is never at hand?

When I feed him, he will usually eat as much as he needs straight away, laying there on the frozen ground, snow falling around him, totally oblivious to the cold and wet. The rest gets taken into the garden and buried for later. Sometimes, it only stays buried for minutes. The weather, of course, has meant that he can’t dig into the soil, but has just buried his treasures in snow. I am dreading the day when it has all disappeared; I have visions of a garden covered with bits of half chewed carcass.

Walks have had a whole new dimension added, snowmen to cock his leg on, fresh snow to roll in and dig through. It is quite amusing to watch him pick up the trail of another dog through the snow, sniffing all around it and following the scent. Bit silly really as it’s much easier to just stand there and look where the footprints go, still, why take the easy way?

There are lots of children out enjoying the snow and he is absolutely fascinated by them. We stood for several minutes the other day watching the children sledging down a hill, he’d have loved to have a go (so would I).

The children next door have discovered a new game in the snow, called ‘torment Lewi.’ They call him then throw snowballs over. He can’t resist a ball flying through the air, but then can’t understand why it just breaks up in his mouth, so he barks at it and to them to throw more. To think how many hours I’ve spent trying to reduce his barking in the garden so he wouldn’t disturb them!