Pup in Boots

I've lived with her long enough to know exactly what she's thinking, "How humiliating! It's bad enough that I have to wear these things around the neighbourhood, but now she's gonna blog about it!"

In case you're wondering why my dog is wearing booties, I'll explain. When there's snow and it gets cold, her feet don't do very well on the longer walks. After a kilometer or so, she begins to spend most of the time picking the snow out from between the pads of her feet. Goldens have trouble with that. I suppose their webbed feet make things worse for them.

She's ambivalent about them. She knows they mean she gets to go walking or skijoring--and that's all good--but she also hates the feel of them on her feet. For a couple of minutes after I put them on, she high steps around, as if she's trying to keep her feet off the floor as much as possible.

Once she's outside, however, she forgets all about them, leaping and flying through the snow as if it's the most thrilling stuff ever created. The joy of snow makes her think that everyone she sees is a long lost friend, and she bounds toward them and then jumps around them in excitement. This could be frightening, I suppose, to those who don't already know her; but thankfully, people seem to assume that a dog wearing booties can mean no real harm, so she gets by with it without making enemies.

The moral to the story, I guess, is that sometimes it helps to look goofy.