As we rose on this windy white morning to begin our day, Kimi sat by the glass patio doors and watched in silent wonder. What could be happening to her world? Where all was a mottled grey of winter when she went to bed, had all changed over night and was now coated with this strange white stuff.

After enjoying a breakfast in bed she wanted to go out. So I slipped her sweater on, pulled on my coat and boots and opened the door to the sounds of her excited barks and yips. As I opened the door, our seasoned veteren to snow, Brigs, stepped out like it was nothing new. Kimi went to follow suit. THIS is where she first stepped into trouble.

With the wind blowing as it has been, it is piling the snow up in odd places. One such place is on our front door step. The snow reaches to the bottom of the door frame so there is no longer a step there. Or so it must have seemed to Kimi. Never the cautious one, Kimi took her first step out into the snow and proceeded to sink right down into it! As she did she tried to back up, but had to much forward motion heading downward to pull it off. Which caused her face to drop. RIGHT INTO THE SNOW! Buried face first in this cold and fluffy white stuff, she quickly kicked in her reverse and tried to back out of it without having to step further into it.

Laughing, I took pity on her and grabbed her sweater to pull her out of it. She looked up at me with snow flakes hanging from her nose and ears, with a confused comical look to her face. She looked out at the snow and yipped at Brigs to come back. As I watched I laughed louder for there in the snow was a perfect Kimi face print buried deep in the snow. Kimi stood there jumping back and forth from right front foot to left front foot in a mock tap dance production of impatience. She wanted out with Brigs!

I stepped out the door, over the pile of snow and lifted Kimi across it. Setting her down on the snow covered sidewalk, she quickly took off running into the back yard. Now, in this spot of our yard the wind had obviously swirled in a different direction for there was hardly any snow there at all. Infact you could still see the grass blades standing above the snow like frozen green sentries watching over our home. Kimi ran through this with a practiced ease. Until she hit the deeper snow just beyond the corner of the house.

Disaster struck immediately. Headed out across the back yard at a run, Kimi quickly became buried in a snow drift that brought her to a sudden full stop. With cold icy snow piled up over her back she stood there looking all around trying to figure out what had just happened. All that was above the snow still was her head and tiny tufts of hair across her back. Her sweater had slipped over her shoulders, off her front legs and down her back. Loosened by her sudden plowing into a snow bank, her body had evidently kept going for just a split second after her sweater had stopped!

After sizing up her situation, Kimi gave one mighty rabbit like jump to free herself from her frozen tomb. It worked! She was free! For a second. For the time her tiny snow covered body was lifted out of the snow and in the air, she was freed. As soon as her white fluffy body hit the snow. POOF! down she went again! I laughed at her attempts as Kimi stood there. She looked at me with her grin taking shape around her eyes and she shouted "YIP!" up to me. Her tiny pink tongue snaked out between her smiling teeth and as it draped downward it accidently touched the top of the snow. OOOOHH that was cold! Her eyes widened and forgetting about the snow, she looked downward to see what could have been so chilly to her tongue. As she did so, her nose plunged into the chilly mound under her chin. Kimi quickly raised her face again and there it was....balanced on top of the tip of her nose....a small pile of snow! Almost looking cross eyed at it, her little tongue snaked out of her mouth, curled upward to her nose and SHLURP! off came the snow, right into her tongue.

I stood there as the wind whipped around me, lashing snow across my face and watched as her facial expressions changed. Going from confusion ( what IS this stuff on my nose?) to wonderment.....( gee...this is cold and wet....but ..GOOD!) to one of pure joy (WOW! Cool! So THIS is snow!). The lights came on in her eyes and they began to sparkle and twinkle as she plunged her nose back into the snow and came up with another mouth full of the chilly wet stuff. How can something so tasteless taste so good??

By now getting the hang of it, Kimi lurched foreward in another bunny hop and made it clear of that snow pile. Only to find herself stuck in another one. Where the snow was not over her back outside of the drifts, it IS deep enough for one of such a tiny height that she had to bunny hop her way across the back yard. So across the yard she went..UMP...POOF!...JUMP...POOF. For each time she jumped out of one patch of snow she fell deeply into another one. Not to worry though, she quickly figured it out and made it toward the path Brigs had already cut through the snow with his bigger feet. Jumping from one foot print to the next, Kimi figured out she would not get buried as long as she stayed where he had already been. Now was NOT the time to for exploring ahead of the others! After all one can't learn new things by burying ones head in the snow!

One thing Kimi has learned about snow is how slippery it can make the sidewalks. Mommy had done her the favor of letting out the cat to play. Much to the dismay of the cat. Now, you need to know something about this cat. The resemblance to his name does not stop with just his name. Known to all as Garfield, he is shaped much like the cartoon character, and has about the same personality. He is, proportionally challenged? Gifted by his girth? Oh heck, he's fat. Over weight. Obese. Not to a size unhealthy to him, he is still fit. Just not trim. He runs, jumps, plays, and hunts. Oh...and he does NOT like the snow. For each step into the snow he takes, he has to lift that paw and shake it clean before placing it down again. Which means that even in the deepest snow, Kimi can easily keep up to him. To avoid her pesty, snapping jaws, the kitty took refuge in the fenced in flower bed. Kimi saw this as a great sport and began to run back and forth yipping at him. Or attempting too. Our graceful little darling loses all grace on ice and snow.

Kimi would run to one end of the sidewalk and twist her tiny body to run the other way. On snow covered sidewalks her feet have forgotten how to follow her body and for each turn her body made, her feet went in opposite directions. As her feet slipped, so did the rest of her and Kimi would come to a rather undignified stop with her face buried once again in the snow. Trying to *save face* she pretended that she MEANT to do this. Kimi would jump to her feet, race off again only to turn, slip and land face first in yet another pile of snow. By the time Kimi figured out she would never catch the kitty this way, the kitty had left the flower bed and headed for the gate. Reaching a deeper pile of drifted snow, the kitty launched himself upward and over the gate.

Kimi being one of very little snow experience tried to follow the kitty. She ran... she jumped... up... up into the air she sailed. Down... down came her furry snow covered body... POOFF!! Kimi disappered! For right in front of this gate was a pile of snow nearly two and a half feet deep! Kimi has now been buried alive! The snow has eaten her up! From within her icy tomb I hear a muffled "YIP!" I laughed and called to her....and again I hear this faint distant sound. "YIP!" I called to her and more urgently came her response "RRRUUFF!!" I spotted a slow movement coming from within this snow and I stepped closer to it. Yep....just as I thought... Kimi was trying to free herself. Like a mad bear or a stuck rabbit Kimi was jumping up and down. Each time she jumped up the tips of her ears cleared the snow level, and each time her body landed beyond sight came a muffled "RRUUFF!" Then movement ceased and I stepped closer again to see what she was doing now. Slowly the tiny fur covered tips of her ears came in to view. Followed by a little more ear... then the tufts of hair from the inside of her ears rose above the snow. Slowly, like a periscope from a submarine, Kimi's ears and the top of her head came into view above the snow. Balancing on her rear end as best she could, Kimi tried to sit up to get her eyes above snow level. Reaching her full height while sitting on her tail end, Kimi could just barely get her eyes above the surface. I watched and chuckled as even her eyebrows raised higher as she struggled to get her eyes lifted as high as she could to see above this white wall that was her fluffy prison.

Still not quite able to see high enough over this too make out where she was, Kimi placed her front feet on the top edge of the snow bank to lever herself upward. Not realizing as she placed weight on it she would only sink. And sink she did! As she placed her tiny white paws on the top edge, she tried to stand up. Losing her balance her weight pushed her downward into the snow bank and in went her face again! Buried to the tips of her ears. I laughed and reach down to pull her out. As I lifted her up I brushed the snow from her face and pulled her close. Unharmed and unafraid she quickly swiped an icy kiss at my nose and struggled to be put down. I let her go in snow not so deep and watched to see what she would do next. Having decided that burying her face was not so bad she ran to a snow drift that was about a foot and a half deep and probably 15 feet long.

Kimi would stand at the edge of this drift, lift herself up to her back feet for just the merest of time and then allow herself to fall, plunging headfirst into said snow bank! Her pointy little nose would slice right through the snow and Kimi's head would be buried past her ears. There she would stand, tail wagging, brushing her own tracks from behind her as she would poke and jab at the snow with her nose until she would manuver her head deeper still. Maybe she was chasing imaginary squirrels into the drifts? Then she would quickly jerk her head back out of the snow and look around her to see if mommy was watching., Mommy was. And laughing at this delightful little sprite frosted with snow. How funny she looked standing there with a pile of snow on the tip of her nose, clumps of snow hanging from the tendrils of hair round her ears, and snow flakes batting against her cheeks while clinging to her eye lashes.

Without taking time to shake this free, Kimi would throw back her head, lift her nose to the sky and yip happily into the still falling snow. The she would plunge her face back into the snowbank once again. All up and down the drift of snow Kimi left traces of herself behind. Tiny foot prints, hollowed out face prints, and the echoes of happy yips drifting off in the wind as one young puppy has discovered the joys of a winter wonderland of snow.

But the best thing Kimi learned from her first big snow fall ever, is to never be afraid to try something new. All things deserve a chance to be enjoyed and appreciated for what it is and what it has to offer. Look deep within yourselves to the child buried in your heart. And if you live where this snow is falling today, go plunge your face into the snow, or let the flakes fall onto your tongue, and be exhilarated by life again.

walk in beauty
Kristi & Kimi