Snow & Dogs

Snow is falling in Wisconsin again. Not a newsworthy event I know. But I am always shocked at how happy and peaceful I feel in watching it for the first time every year. And it is not flurries. It is the sideways kind. The kind that is coming down so fiercely your line of sight is no more than fifty yards when you are out in it.

I am happy I have a warm house to live and sleep in. The aroma of coffee fills the air. A hooded sweatshirt covers my torso. Slippers on my feet. My sweet daughter is at school, my lovely wife working in the other room. Her trip to Chicago canceled today because of the weather. All is right in the world. 

Our doggies are at doggy day care for the day. Yes, we send our dogs to day care once a week. We are those type of people. Except today is their second day this week. We sent them because in a few hours we are picking up a puppy. Not to keep but to foster. We have an entire set of rules regarding this foster as a result of our last episode (https://silentpunt.com/?p=135).

The holidays are coming. There is much to look forward to. Family. Time together. Good food. Travel.

(our foster pup)

I’ve been reading a bit about time recently. Time is apparently very hard to define. Like consciousness. I try to not look back in time. It often makes me sad.....for the good things that have passed that I no longer get to participate in. So I look forward as much as possible. 

But then it comes. The holidays are over. January. February. March. F**king April. Did you know it sometimes snows here in April? My birthday is April 18 and several years ago we got the same number of inches of snow as the number of my birth day. 

This is how I want to treat my snowblower in April….

(parental advisory explicit lyrics)

I feel you Michael Bolton

I do not look at the snow in those months the way I do now. That snow is an anchor. Holding us back from being outside. By that point we’ve been inside for months. The snow delays the green grass. The fresh leaves. A form of Midwestern purgatory.

I see no joy in that snow. Our dogs do not frolic in it, like the puppy will today. She is coming from the south and this will be her first snow. 

The confusion and subsequent joy of a dog experiencing snow for the first time is wonderful. Dogs are in the moment. Their happiness knows no bounds. It is eternal. 

Our dog Maverick lived the first six months of his life neglected in a cage. His first time setting foot on grass was with us. His is the sweetest soul I’ve ever met.

Dogs don’t ponder time or consciousness. Nor their own mortality or the mortality of loved ones. 

Or do they? They say dogs will often go away to die. They know it’s coming. Are knowing it’s coming and being sad about that prospect mutually exclusive? I don’t know.

We may get snow again this April. All I can do is tell myself the snow might suck then.

But it doesn’t suck now.