LABRADORS IN THE SNOW

Do Labs love Snow?

Monsoon loves nothing better than to follow the coyote tracks, sniff for meadow mice, and run around in circles after snowballs...........

All our Labs have loved snow, even Olive. When I first met Olive, her name was actually Brenda......Long story, but her first owners had a lot of respect for Brenda and called to ask me if it was okay.......I didn't know what to say........Eventually we got to change her name, this after I got close to the little Black Lab, going up to where she lived on the Jumping Horse Ranch. I needed to check on her and the other animals. Tom, ranch manager and Olive's owner at the time, was in the hospital in Bozeman and so, I had this duty, driving around the lake and up the ranch road through snow drifts to break some ice in water bowls and give the dog a run.

Like I say, it is a long story I'll fill in, but sadly, Tom died and we inherited Olive. It was the same winter it was 40 below one day when I went up to the ranch, shortly before we took Olive home for keeps. Her water dish had one of those heater elements in it, but froze up solid nevertheless........Olive seemed not to mind

the cold and would spring out of her doghouse and run up a side hill, me trailing behind. She was a fireball and not one to avoid ice or snow, sleet or hail. I guess if you can sleep in a doghouse and suvive that kind of cold, you probably gain some toughness. Her feet were a lot like the skin of a well worn hardball. Her toenails never grew, she ran so much and so very hard. She was always on or off. 

Daisy liked the snow too, but she was more of a hunter like Monsoon, preferring to sniff for stuff. But then, Daisy and Monsoon were/are stick dogs. Olive was a tennis ball dog and quite simply, a running fool. She could run half way up the Bear Trap Canyon along the Madison River, miss every prickly pear cactus spine, then join me for a moment or two before racing off again, checking on any fisherman who happened to be lucky enough to make her acquaintance. She figured, like most Labs, everyone comes to see them.........Got a ball? Toss it for me!

So, today, we went out and around the island during a western Washington winter storm. Schools are closed, even the local QFC closed along with the bank in town. Here on Marrowstone, the roads are packed snow and ice and most people are walking.

This photo is down at Mystery Bay Park. She was chasing snowballs tossed by Brenda and chewed up quick enough.........Toss me another snowball..........Couldn't find a stick. Right now, as I type, she is spread out, sound asleep at my feet. Only an hour from running in the snow, when I shut this machine down, she will hop up and demand another romp in the snow.........It's a toasty 32 outside, far from that 40 below mark, one I will never experience again.......But I can remember it, mainly because I can see Olive in my mind, running up that hill above the river. It hurts to breathe at 40 below and the snow is far too dry for snowballs. That's probably why she turned to the tennis variety.