April Snow Stroll

 Hey Tribe,

April (snow) showers bring May June flowers...

It just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing here and a lot of people aren't pleased, but we're too busy playing and admiring the beautifully white landscape to care if it's "supposed" to be spring or not.  We have sunshine, but it isn't warm and won't be warm for quite some time.  Typically, Southcentral Alaska doesn't see flowers until June anyway, so I'm ok to keep the white stuff a bit longer.

During one of these many snow shower days, TheMother and I braved the flakes and the roads to take the dogs on a much needed stroll.

Well, the humans strolled while the KBDs ran through the snow like fools.

Not surprisingly, Fly got too close to the riverbank's edge and she plunged completely into the water and had to swim a bit before she found a secure enough footing to haul her sopping wet body from the icy water.  She shook and rolled in the snow for a few seconds and hopped back up just as relatively dry as before she took the dunk.  I tried to have her hold still long enough for me to scan for injury, but she was too impatient and raced away to catch back up with Rex.

Rex, meanwhile, behaved more cautiously around the water and opted to only wade in as far as his ankles.

Typically, there is a view from the bridge that is quite picturesque and it is nearly obligatory for locals to take a photo whenever they visit the place.  So, naturally, I wanted to set my dogs up for said necessary photo - however, Fly had other plans for our pause in the middle of the bridge.

This is the photo I had in mind

Being a highly observant creature that craves high locations from which to better view the world, Fly decided the bridge's handrail would make for a better vantage point.  So, she made the leap.

She absolutely could have stuck the landing and been just fine parading back and forth along top of the handrail, but I wasn't willing to risk it - actually, I didn't really pause to consider the possibility, I just reached to catch my baby from possibly plummeting, again, into the river.

She's probably still thinking about trying it again.

Strolling through the woods felt safer to me for my daring duo and they had a riot hunting and sniffing in and out of the tall trees and then making mad dashes back to me when I re-called them for pork fat snacks.

However, the woods held another agility challenge that Fly found almost immediately and mastered easily.

Rexy very much wanted to be up there with her, but he couldn't figure out how she'd done it until I showed him; then he gleefully joined her up on the log and both dogs looked about them with superior satisfaction.

We found a wide snowy meadow of sorts - it's probably a swamp in any other season - and it was nice to be able to watch the dogs romp in the snow and explore the area.  It was also exceedingly pleasant to have the entire place to ourselves and I felt very lucky to be there right then with TheMother and the KBDs.

The not-currently-a-swamp's snow was several feet deep, but that didn't deter either dog: both merrily swam through and appeared to have a glorious time out there.  They must feel the same way I do whenever I step somewhere I've never been before.

While there, I wanted to see what kind of action shots I could get of the dogs with Little Buddy (our gopro), so I had the dogs sit and wait while I got myself set up with what I hoped was a good camera setting.  Then, on my signal, TheMother called the dogs and they streaked across the expanse of unmarked snow toward her, like very good dogs indeed.

I need to improve my skills.  It will be fun to return here next winter and see if I am able to produce clearer images.  

One more race across the bridge and our journey was nearly at an end, which was good, because I think we'd had enough adventure for one day.

Before we were completely finished, we did take some time to practice a long down stay; the tired but happy Karelians were content to lounge in the deep snow and collect snowflakes on their black backs as I took one more photo for the memory blog.