A Little Golden Book...

After three days of feeling like we were living in a Currier and Ives lithograph, welcome--The Big Thaw!

All that is left of the gorgeous snow that blanketed everything in sight are a few sad little patches of melting ice. The Corgi snowman I built sits in the middle of a large black mud pit, ears tipped forward, muzzle fallen on the ground, and back sagging.

Poor Tex.

After three days of frolicking in the snow, he is completely baffled by its disappearance.

His puzzled expression reminds me of my all-time favorite children's book, Four Puppies.

In this charming Little Golden Book, published in the sixties, author Anne Heathers chronicles the growth of four Collie puppies who spend a year exploring their world with the help of an older and wiser friendly red squirrel. Thanks to Lilian Obligado's beguiling illustrations, I still read this book at least once each year, usually in the winter, when the nasty weather is getting me down.

Look at these precious puppies mourning the loss of the snow, and trying to pat that snowman back together, and you can see why I sympathize with Tex!

Having grown up in a sunny, warm clime--and been stalled most of his life-- Mr Wonderful has had very little experience with snow.

So it was much to his delight that we let him out to play in the knee-deep snow this morning.

After bucking, kicking, rearing, rolling, and then doing it all over again, he decided to dig in and start eating the snow.

This, he did not like.

We tried determinedly to get a close-up of the snow on his whiskers, but with all the head tossing, rearing, bucking and spinning, it was a little difficult.

This was the best we could do.

Tex, on the other hand, has become quite accomplished at posing for the camera.

Here he is dashing through the snow...

Last but not least, the Aussies. We had so much fun watching them tear around this yard this morning that we left them out for over an hour. As time went on, I noticed that both of them were slowing down considerably. Finally, when they got really quiet, I went outside to investigate.

Turns out that Aussie hair, for some reason, attracts snow. In fact it attracts snow so much that each dog's undercarriage was completely covered with snowballs. Here is what Shorty's looked like, when I cornered him near the alfalfa:

"Watch out where the Huskies Go..."

We woke up this morning to something we don't see very often in Northeast Texas: several inches of gorgeous white pristine snow.

In fact, it is still snowing outside, constituting what I would call a heavy snow, at least for our area. The branches of all of our trees are now growing heavy laden, and sagging under the weight of all that beautiful white stuff.

But I digress.

At the crack of dawn, we slipped on our snow boots and took Tex out for his morning constitutional. He flew out the door as usual, intent upon his business, but drew up short when he realized that everything looked decidedly different, and his favorite potty spot, which had been underwater for days, now looked like Lake Placid in 1980, just before the crowds hit.

His first steps on the white stuff were very tentative.

"Cold paws, cold paws, cold paws..."

But before long he was flying around the property...

"Gee, this is fun!"

He did give himself a bit of a headache eating the snow...

But in the end, the weather put a big smile on his face (and on ours :-)

"I love the snow!"

Do you see the tiny photinia plant in this photo, the one submerged in more than a foot of water?

That tiny photinia marks the spot where we have been teaching Tex to potty.

Have you ever seen a Corgi with five-inch legs try to potty in more than a foot of water?

The only parts of his body that are not submerged are nose, eyes, and ears.

Crocodile Corgi.

To say that our record rainfall is interfering greatly with Tex's potty training would be a gross understatement.

Waterlogged.

That's what we are.

No-No, Bad Dog!

Hello, my name is Tex, and I'm a confirmed house-soiler.

I know it's not polite to air your dirty laundry.

But I need support, and I am hoping one of you is prepared to give it.

My human just cleaned up after me--again--for the 759th time this month--and she says I will be banished to the back yard soon if I do not learn how to hold my water.

The thing is, I just do not quite get the whole 'housebreaking' concept.

The cat never has to go outside.

The humans never have to go outside.

Why should I have to go outside?

And why, pray tell, must I be on a leash when I do?

Please send any advice, suggestions, encouragement or support my way ASAP, as I kind of like my spot by the sunny window, and I have grown very fond of The Dog Chair.

Sincerely,

No-No, Bad Dog

Portrait of Tex

Being an astute, 'on-the-ball' kind of person, I am fully aware that I have just posted a picture of the back of my dog's head. Rest assured, dear reader, that I did this with full knowledge and forethought. It is unfortunate but true that for the past two months, being left with just one puppy, and a very friendly puppy at that, the only photos I have been able to take of said puppy look exactly like the shot above.

The back of his head.

Because anytime the puppy turns his head just the slightest and catches a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye, he comes barreling toward me, full tilt, with his big floppy tongue aiming straight for my expen$ive len$.

Ergo, I have thousands of blurry, smudgy photos of my puppy's fat red tongue.

But today, I finally got smart.

I threw him a stick.

"Look, ma, a stick!"

"Say, this stick tastes pretty good!

I think I'll stop and have a little chew..."

"Wowzah! Great stick! This is the best stick ever!"

Success!

It is clear that I finally proved that I am smarter than my dog.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, a portrait of Tex...

Autumn leaves

The leaves are finally falling off the big cottonwood tree in the backyard, much to the delight of The Three Amigos.

They are spending hours each day playing in the leaves, running circles around the big tree trunk, and chasing their non-existent little tails. Being puppies, they tire quickly, and we love to watch them sacked out on a pile of leaves, sunning themselves.

Their personalities have changed dramatically in the past few weeks. Tater--the puppy who initially was all about play--has matured the most, and he already can sit, stay, come, 'watch it,' etc. Ace, who was eager to please from birth, is following right along. Ironically it is the puppy I decided to keep--Tex--who is proving to be a bit on the independent side.

In an effort to keep Tex's little pea-sized brain active and engaged, I recently made a purchase at Tractor Supply that I am very excited about. I am curling up tonight in the 'dog chair' with Kyra Sundance's Dog Tricks and Training Workbook, hoping to get some great tips from the text. For the visual learner, she includes a DVD, which I plan to watch with Tex--it can't hurt! She also includes a packet of pocket-sized cards to carry along for those of us who are memory-challenged.

Look out, Tex!