Snow

     I love the quiet of snow, the silence buffeted by all that flakey, freezing white; I am drawn in by that cocoon of pillowy coldness. I just want to fill up my bird feeders, make some popcorn, put on my jammies and watch a great movie.…The shoveling can happen later. Staying inside is what it’s all about!

     When I was a little girl though, the sight of the snow made me want to get bundled up in my snowsuit, force my double socked feet into my boots and waddle outside. Of course I would be back inside five minutes later to go to the bathroom and have to peel it all off and then get suited up all over again. And forget it if I slipped outside and fell; I was there until some kindly soul helped me up (usually a brother). Then it was all about being outside! Winters in Montreal felt endless; the snow drifts were as high as the roof!

     Now as an old lady, and living in B.C., I am quite happy to be just a witness to the wonderful whiteness outdoors. A slip on the ice years ago and the resulting fracture has made me leery of icy sidewalks and uncleared walkways; it’s safer indoors. And it’s infinitely, completely and utterly much more beautiful outside in the lovely, pure white snow. The shoveling can wait!

Help

     Our eldest daughter was walking two dogs when one of them, her mini Irish doodle Stella had an interaction with another off leash dog. This caused our daughter to drop her leash and for Stella to take off down the street, dragging it as she went. Our daughter had a small injury on her hand but she and the dog's owner ran off to find her. Stella ran down a busy street and turned the corner and kept running. Then she turned another corner and kept going. Eventually apparently she crossed the street and scratched at the door where another of our daughter's dog sitting friends lived. Unbeknownst to all of us, this little Bichon-Shih Tzu cross named Meisha let her owner know that Stella was at the door and they let her in. Meanwhile our daughter had called me on the phone, out of breath and with her hand bleeding. She and the other dog’s owner continued to look for Stella. I ran out of our house and while she secured the third dog, a cute little mini Bernadoodle named Buddy, I started to track Stella using the Apple tag on her collar. I was also hollering Stella at the top of my lungs, having what a friend wittily described as a "Tennessee Williams" moment. Eventually Meisha's human ran out to the end of her driveway to let me know that Stella was safely in her house. All the dogs were reunited with their people and all was well. To make a short story tedious, we did have to find a local and available tetanus shot (Safeway has them) and our daughter was late for work. There were however several valuable lessons to be learned from all this running, panting and shouting:

1. Praying is important and should be done even if at the same time you are running like an idiot down the street with one eye on your iPhone and one eye on the road, shouting your dog's name. Multitasking at its best!

2. Never underestimate the ability of dogs, no matter how cute and small, to help us humans look after them. Perhaps they actually look after us?!

3. In times of need, dogs never forget a friend even if its been months since they've last seen one another. Perhaps we could learn a lesson from our pets in this regard!?

4. Technology is great but in the end, in this case anyway, success was achieved as a result of plain old-fashioned neighbourliness and friendship. Oh, and don't forget prayer!