Wednesday, December 17, 2008

More Snow, and a Realization

More Snow, and a Realization

It snowed again today. It's dark now, so it might still be snowing. The prediction was 4 to 7 inches, and that comes on top of the three, four, 5 inches from the other day. So call it three and five for a total of eight. It's enough snow you could hide a small dog in.

Bellingham isn't really set up for this kind of snow. There are some hills throughout the town, and its snowplows are too infrequent. Actually, I'll take that back. The city does a pretty good job considering it's a town in the Pacific Northwest. However, the drivers do not. To be specific, they panic a bit. They forget to signal in the snow, and they speed up, following too close.

In any case, when Kathy and I see the snow, one of the most obvious thoughts is Ozma would love this. Especially now with the backyard fence, she would've had a blast. She always did. She was rollicking snow dog, and we went up hills down hills around trails and through the woods. It was one of the many times when we moved off in a children's book or fairytale land. I remember one time we walked down the road in sudden valley, I didn't realize that there were deer nearby. They stood up and moved away, and when they did, I could see the five or six little brown patches, ovals where their bodies had been pressed against the grass, melting the snow.

I don't know what also moving around to hear. I've seen dear tracks, of course, and a number of bird tracks. . However, what with the snowfall in the way it is I'm not sure if the small animal tracks are squirrel raccoon. We've seen both, the squirrels are far more common.

When I started thinking about borrowing Ruben, I wondered: would Ozma be jealous? Would she care?

Immediately the answer came, and came clearly. Ozma would care, but she would not be jealous. By that I mean, she was a sharing dog. She loved Ruben. She loved humans. She loved people; she loved animals. Since she is always with me, with us, there would be no jealousy. In fact, except for an occasional time when she thought she wasn't getting petted enough, she didn't really understand the meaning of the word. What she wanted was everybody in a big puppy pile. Everybody shares. Everybody plays. Everybody rubs. Everybody feeds her.

So, I will borrow Rubin. It won't be Ozma but it's a member of her pack.

Outside, everything is quiet, everything is white. And all is softened by the snow.

Greg

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