Winter Fun

One of the bloggers I follow, Kelly from In Real Life, is training for a marathon and showed lovely pictures of her outdoor run. In the winter. In Canada. I salute her energy and determination, and I look forward to following her progress.

My own interactions with winter have had their highs and lows this year. The 'highs' I showed last week as I conquered Mt. Porchroof and cleared the slopes.

We left the ladder in place, partly in case we needed to rake the roof again, but mostly because we didn't feel like wrestling it out of the snow bank. The snow bank that I had made much bigger and that the dogs have decided is their preferred route on and off the porch.

 

They also like to pose up there, pretending to be Yukon King watching for Sgt. Preston, I presume. While I had to help that snow off, (thanks to us messing up the pitch while building the darn roof) a nearby shed roof took care of itself, unnoticed until ...dun dun dun..the Great Escape!  Sitting at my computer facing the porch window, I saw a flash of black from the corner of my eye. I looked up to see Boomer running towards the corner of the yard- the corner of the yard where the shed roof meets the fence! 

It was still too high for Boomer, but the other two were already out of sight. Anna and Rosie were on their way to the local sushi bar, right across the street. Jack Traps sells bait fish during the winter and I don't know if he dumped his dead fish, or customers left them, but there were frozen fish all around his giant ice trap flagpole, from minnow size to 5 or 6 inches long. Anna rolled, Rosie gulped. 

I grabbed a shovel and went to move a mountain of snow while Ameranth headed out to get them. Then she walked over the fence to tackle the other side. (That's a six foot fence, by the way) The 2 inch crust of ice that let the dogs stay on top was not enough to keep us from plunging thigh deep in snow as we shoveled. I trenched further along the fence as well, since I was there and I knew the successful escape would have Rosie trying again.

Sure enough, when we took them out back the first thing they did was run to the corner, then Rosie prowled the perimeter, raising her nose to assess the height. We thought she couldn't make it out and we were sorely mistaken. A few minutes later the other two let us know Rosie had flown the coop. Rosie now has her bathroom breaks on a 20-foot leash and I am hoping we have a thaw soon.

Ameranth and I had a hard time not taking this personally, seeing that we had all just come back from an off-leash walk in the woods. An off-leash walk that ended with the two huskies running into a low part of the field, out of sight, then popping up to cross the road into a neighbor's yard. Thank goodness the house is empty, since they were right up on the steps making themselves at home. 

Once more, we swore that they could never be allowed off leash again. At least not together- Anna is good at listening to Ameranth when she's alone.  Rosie gets her 'wolf look' and starts slinking away, pretending she doesn't hear a thing. Later she rests her head on my leg and promises she will never stray again. She needs a 12 step program. Actually, that's what she's on right now- she can take just about 12 steps on that 20-foot lead!