We woke up this morning to lots of fresh snow.  I guess the weatherman just wanted to send winter late this year.  The good news is that the temperature is warm (32 degrees) so it's good for getting outdoors.  The bad news is that its really heavy wet snow!  All the dogs had a great time out playing in it today.  Had to put their feet in warm buckets of water when they came in to get rid of those attached snowballs!

Wicket in photo, top left, Allie behind and Wicket in front, top right and Allie in photo on left  Maddie on bottom left and Jack on bottom right.  A great time was had by all and now all are sleeping!

I have dreamed of writing a book someday about the surprising relationships I have discovered with my Otterhounds.  This is a breed I would have never dreamed of owning but now that I have several in my life, I have rejoiced every day as I observe how each one is such a unique individual and how they are all contributing such richness to my life.

Recently I finished a book by Jon Katz called Rosie and the storm.  This is a story told from the perspective of a border collie as she dealt with the challenges of living on a farm and culminates in a winter snow storm where she had to take charge of the survival of all living creatures on the farm.  One interesting perspective described in the story is Rosie's search for Katie, the farmer's wife.  We read how Katie was sick and how Rosie's job became companionship for this dying woman but when the time of her death came, Rosie was moved from the house to a shed to protect her from all of the traffic of people coming and going from the house and Katie's body being removed.  Because she was not present at the time of Katie's death and following departure, Rosie's sense of loss was confusion and became a continual search for her friend through the rest of the book.

Fortunately, I have not experienced such a loss with my dogs to date but I did have a small experience with this when Maddie had her first litter of puppies.  I learned a lot from this experience and the depth of feeling that Maddie had for her babies.  When people began coming to our home to pick up their puppies, Maddie was very interested in these people and really wanted to have a closeness to each person visiting.  At first, I was concerned that she would perhaps be too involved with them and that these people had eyes only for the puppies.  I didn't see how important this was to her and upon one occasion, I moved her to another room until the family and their puppy departed.  When I released Maddie, she was extremely anxious and frantically searched the house and yard for this puppy--the fourth one to go home.  Eventually she cried and drew her two remaining puppies close to her  and must have resolved in her mind that the puppy had gone but she must have searched for him for about 3 days.  Maddie was an exceptional Mom and in her next litter, I always found ways for her to be a part of the leavetaking of each puppy.  It meant a lot to her and thus to me as well.