I hate winter!

January 4 /09

Ok, that's it. I've decided I hate winter!! I tried to like it. I really did. But I hate it.

n

No wonder birds fly south and bears hibernate. Even the squirrels and rabbits are hiding. And I know why Beauty and Rugrat look out the patio window and run away yowling.

n

Winter is cold and blustery and it makes me shiver. And the salt they throw on the sidewalks makes my toes itch. And try biting into a snowball. It just melts and slides right out of your mouth. Besides, snowballs make my muzzle turn pink so I look like a girl. But the worst is ..... there are no sticks!

n

Tonight on my walk, I saw my favourite tree at the park - the one I like to pull branches from in the summer - and I got an idea. I thought if all my sticks are buried under the snow, I'll just snap a branch off the tree and make one. Yeah!

nI bit into a branch and tugged and tugged.

I yanked the branch down but it was just a skinny little twig. I definitely could not make a decent stick out of it.

nSo I tried again. Yank. Yank. It was very hard work. I was so pooped.

nn

Finally. A branch I could work with.

n

So I started turning it into a stick. I whittled it down to a nice size. Nothing to be hugely proud of, but respectable enough to take home and show Papa.

n


There it was - a stick in winter! Whoa, was I lucky!

NOT!

Just as I was picking it up, it started to crumble. The more I tried to hold onto it, the smaller it got.

nn

Then it just disintegrated and disappeared right into the snow. I couldn't believe it. Was I mad. Grrrr. I'm not one to give up easily but by this time, I was practically frozen solid. So before my drool turned to icicles, I left.

All I could think of all the way home was how much I wish it was summer so I could do some real, honest-to-goodness stick hunting. I kept thinking about all the nice big sticks I am so proud to carry home in the summer, holding my head high and feeling so glad to be a dog.

Notice I don't have my scarf on. I lost it in my frenzy to pick up the stick, so Mama and I had to trudge all the way back to the park to get it. And will you just look at my face? Totally covered in snow. I got some up my nose and it made me snort something awful. I was miserable.


After I got home, I saw this cartoon:

Geez, that could have been me. Maybe this should put things into perspective. I'll have to think about it ... ok, I thought about it. I had a bad day and it could have been worse. But I still hate winter.

n n n

My pal, Dewey Dewster, just sent me this poem. It pretty much describes what winter's like for us Canucks! Thanks Dewey!

WINTER Poem

It's winter in Canada

And the gentle breezes blow

Seventy miles an hour

At thirty-five below.

Oh, how I love Canada

When the snow's up to your butt.

You take a breath of winter

And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful

So I guess I'll hang around.

I could never leave Canada.

I'm frozen to the ground!