Shadow's Frozen Adventure

[Ankou]

Or rather, "Shadow's Daily Usually Rather Boring Walk" but that isn't a catchy title.

Okay Shadow! Are you ready!? Are you ready to go? Lemme put your collar on, little buddy.

Good job.
Usually, even in his old age, he's very alert to me finishing lunch then the tiny clink of his collar when I pick it up but today he was out cold. Having some happy dog dream, I hope, betrayed by his little twitching feet.

But he did wake up and excitedly went into the woods like we do every day.

Who's that dog in the ice? Maybe if you hold his paws you'll both have better traction because it's a death trap out here.
He made it without falling but afterwords I spread some sand back there for tomorrow, it's very slick and he can fall easily in his old age. Fortunately the path in the woods is really only bad about 30 feet beyond the gate.

"Where to next? Something less awful I hope."

 

[Sylvi_]

Such a handsome boy Shadow is.
Hope he had fun on his rather snowy walk.

 

[txdyna65]

Aww he is a handsome man, how old is he?
Anything below 60 deg and you have to drag my dachshunds outside, cant imagine ice and snow lol

 

[Laurah]

Yep snow here too. My dogs still want to walk and hate being stuck in house. I guess my backyard isn't good enough. We are off for that icey walk this morning

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

Great pictures!

I'm sure that ice would teach my poodle to slow down a little..geez!

 

[Danita]

I love seniors!
Yours looks so sweet

Quite an adventure

 

[Ankou]

Such a handsome boy Shadow is.
Hope he had fun on his rather snowy walk.

Thank you, he loves his walks. More than I do certainly.

Aww he is a handsome man, how old is he?
Anything below 60 deg and you have to drag my dachshunds outside, cant imagine ice and snow lol

Shadow is 13, 14 in May.
He's a total snow dog, actually he's a mutt from a competitive sled dog kennel so he's never been the sort to let some winter weather ruin his walks.
Actually it's funny, the only time he doesn't want to go on his walks is when it gets above 75 (and I agree, that's too damn hot. I don't know how you people survive.) He just lays there and gives me this look "it's too hot to exist, leave me to my suffering human."

Yep snow here too. My dogs still want to walk and hate being stuck in house. I guess my backyard isn't good enough. We are off for that icey walk this morning

Aw. I hope things went well and it clears up soon (well, provided you live somewhere that stuff tends to melt before spring.)

Great pictures!
I'm sure that ice would teach my poodle to slow down a little..geez!

Maybe... none of my dogs ever learned to slow down on it! They'd fall all over the place, get back up, and keep running. The only thing that slowed Shadow down was age, not really wisdom. He'd run on it if he could run.

I love seniors!
Yours looks so sweet
Quite an adventure

He's very sweet and has a cute demeanor that is hard to capture in pictures. He's delicate and getting fairly senile which just triggers all my instincts to nurture and spoil him for whatever time he has left.
Peaceful 'adventures' are my favorite kind.


This winter has been the mildest I can remember, it hasn't even been below 0 once that I've seen which is extremely unusual (in January at the very least there is always a couple weeks where it pretty much stays -20F day and night.) Unfortunately lots of mild, warmer than usual weather means lots of ice. Almost everything is covered in ice from all the melting and refreezing snow and freezing rain. Normally there would be a couple feet of accumulated snow but everything we've had so far melts. Fortunately for me I have cleats (yaktrax, I think they are called) but Shadow only has his claws.

As bad as the ice is though, it has been better for Shadow than deep snow. He's partially paralyzed in his hind end from a spinal stroke a couple years ago and really has trouble with any snow deeper than 4 inches. Earlier this winter we had nearly a foot in one storm and he almost got stuck as soon as he got off the porch, I had to dig him some doggy paths around the yard.