Walking in winter can sometimes be a hazard to ones health, and yet staying indoors isn’t a palatable alternative either! I find as I try and traverse the streets in my neigbhourhood I am faced with a dilemma, I do not live in a perfect world! This lovely woman stopped to chat to me when she spied me carrying Miss Mattie, her little paws had been a “salted”. I remarked that I had chosen her street as the complex she lives in has a contractor that comes around and salts the sidewalks, which is great for me, I am wearing boots. It’s a toss up, if I pick an area where I won’t get “iced out” and fall on my kiester, that can be counter intuitive to my canine friends! Some people are very fastidious and clean their sidewalks religiously, pre salt when we are due to get an ice storm, they make traversing safe for those of us who walk! Not everyone operates the same way! Two doors down from the conscientious family you will get a house that isn’t in to shoveling, they don’t seem to make it out to clear the snow, regardless of how light a dusting. Mother Nature delivers a little rain and the next thing you know, you have an eight foot skating track. The house next to that, you may get heavy salters, whether it be rock salt or the stuff that is supposed to be paw friendly, the front of their house is a plethora of white rocks, which wreaks havoc on a pooches feet. If I wear ice picks on my boots, I flatten them on the cement and have a false sense of security. When I happen upon an icy patch, the next thing I know I am going sideways, my feet flailing because the metal picks have become worn down nubs. If only we lived in a perfect world, where one’s only worry was whether you have a warm enough coat and mitts on! Where you can keep your eyes up and not peeled on the ground trying to figure out where you can get the appropriate footing! There are a lot worse problems to have though, so I not only put on a warm coat, I wear a smile!
No Time To Paws 