Life, in general, is very exciting when you are a JRT. Life becomes ‘fit to burst’ exciting when there is snow on the ground! Yes, the snow came and now that it’s nearly all gone, here is the JRT highlights…
The snow started last Monday night, in time for last walk. Tommy wasn’t that impressed with the wetness of the snow on his nose as he left the warmth of the flat, but was soon distracted by the white stuff that flies everywhere if you play bow it. From my perspective, it was a really nice change to see the street covered in white with the moons reflection making the night walk an almost summer affair because it was so light out. The bitter cold had also turned into something warmer.
By the morning, the roads were impassable and we had 6 inches of snow on the pavement. Tommy loved his (much shorter) morning walk and play was on the cards! He loves to chase the snow to try to catch it and seems bemused that it just disappears further into the blanket. The smells of chicken bones were covered so the sniffing was less and the walk enjoyable. By the time we got back, b/f needed to inspect the main roads to see if he could get into work. Definitely not, but Tommy loved the extra 5 minute walk to get up the road. B/f worked from home, and took Tommy round the block lunchtime. He was running around b/f on the end of his extender lead, we now call this ‘doing the helicopter’. It warms the heart to watch.
Getting Tommy out of the flat whilst the snow got thicker was still not a problem. Even when, by Friday, the snow was up to his shoulder he was still bounding along the pavements. Tommy’s eyes have been so bright and his tail held so high! We saw other dogs (obviously) out and about during our evening walks, and the owners, although through gritted teeth because of the cold, all commented on how much the dogs loved the snow! There were bounding, happy dogs all over the place. All excited by the strange white stuff on the pavements.
One night, whilst walking Tommy, I went through the underpass. Coming up the other way, there was a man with his SBT, scrabbling up on the ice, desperately holding onto the rail with one hand and his pulling dog on the other. His SBT was a growler. What is a girl to do in this situation? You know what we done! Carried on walking, telling Tommy to ‘leave it’ (which he did, thank goodness!) whilst the man looked on enviously at the well behaved JRT walking to heel and confident lady with very grippy soles on her shows out in the snow!
The garden had about 10-11 inches at its deepest. Watching Tommy bound his way around made standing out there more bearable. We have discovered that Tommy does the same route every time he gets let out (why we hadn’t realised this before, I don’t know!). Up to the summer house, sniff the shed, round the back of the summer house, sometimes a bark, across the garden to the bamboo, along the back fence to the summer house, round the back of the summer house again, maybe another bark just to be sure and along the path to the back door.
On Friday, I didn’t fancy the drive to Stambridge for Waggy Walkers, so brought Tommy into work. We walked, not because I couldn’t get my car out, but because it would do us both good to get some ‘proper’ exercise. It took 50 minutes to get in, but it was well worth it. We both came in with grins on our faces and I had rosy cheeks. Why had I not thought of walking to work before? He had a good day with lots of fuss and only barked at one delivery driver! Luckily he also has a JRT and ‘know what their like’. He stayed in the office for a few minutes till Tommy calmed down enough to stroke and then I gave him some garlic beef to give him (the delivery driver to Tommy, not the other way around). They are now firm friends.
The walk home was chilly, and something really spooked Tommy enroute. He screamed, like the time he was
picked up by the head. I checked his paws but nothing there. I’m not sure what is was but we carried on.
By Saturday morning, the snow was typically melting big time. Tommy and I went to the park, but with only 2 inches of snow on the ground it wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped.
We’re now left with solid ice on a lot of the pavements. It makes for tricky walking, and the temperatures have dropped. The only thing that’s fun now is watching Tommy bemused as to why he cant get the chicken bone that’s frozen solid in the clear ice, but that’s nowhere near as much fun.
