I’m sure the entire nation is aware of the crisis we are having in here Texas.  It has been one of the hottest and driest summers on record.  In the past 9 months we have had almost zero rainfall.  The land is starting to look like a desert, wild fires are out of control all over the state, water tables are in serious trouble, and everyone is conserving water.  The heat is oppressive and brutal.  Because of this, I have decided to talk about something I haven’t seen since I have moved to South/ Central Texas.  Snow!!  There were times when I hated the snow in Colorado, but more often than not, I loved it.  One of the main reason’s I could love our snow was the sheer joy it brought to my dogs.  All of them loved the show, even Merlot.  It wasn’t that they were raised with snow.  Merlot and Major were born near Virginia Beach, raised in Alabama, seasoned in Arizona, and only moved to Colorado when they were middle aged dogs of  5 years.  They had experienced a small amount of snow from time to time in Alabama and while visiting family in Arkansas, but nothing like we had on the front range of north Colorado Springs.

Merlot, Levi as a pup, and Major, going to feed the horses in the early morning light.

Merlot seems to change when the first snow fell.  He would revert to a puppy, sheer joy that SNOW had fallen!!  He would plow the ground, biting huge mouth fulls of powder.  One of his favorite games was to catch snowballs and crunch them.  To this dog, a snowball fight was bliss.  At times he would play king of the snow drift, shoving the other dogs down if they climbed his perch and other times he would fain indifference to the game, if he wasn’t the one who would start the fun.  “It wasn’t my idea, so I am not going to play”.

Merlot and Major, enjoying the remains of a snow drift.

There were the really rare days where the temperature would drop below freezing.  I could tell when it hit 10 plus degrees below, because the dogs would go outside to pee and dance, not leaving their paws down for more than a few seconds.  Once they were finished with their business, all would bolt back into the house as fast as possible.  On the whole, we would only get a handful of brutally cold days, unlike Texas where we have 3 months of brutally hot!

Indigo (Shiba), Levi the pup, Merlot, and Major running up the big hill to the house after horse feeding is done.

Colorado was such an experience.  I’m a born and raised southern girl, but I lost my heart to Colorado.  I think Merlot did as well.

One of my favorite pictures of all time. Merlot at the bottom, then from front to back Charm, Cami, Levi, and Sadie. That is a 6 foot privacy fence.

~Becky