Snow-Fall

Spending an afternoon with other pups usually guilts galvanizes me into making more of an effort with my own hound. Chicago winter tends to interfere not only with the chances of taking a long walk but also with training efforts, since it just gets way too cold to be fumbling around with treats outside. However, yesterday was a gorgeous day so as soon as I got back from CACC, I leashed up Billy and headed out to Humboldt Park with a pouch full of kibble. We had a great time in the sunshine and worked on loose leash walking, basic obedience and a few tricks as well as running through all the undisturbed snowdrifts that still smothered the park after Tuesday's bit of weather. As a result, Billy was so exhausted that he zonked out on the bed straight after his dinner (around 6:30pm) and didn't move again until 9am the next morning!

Encouraged by yesterday's trek, I popped my camera into my pocket and we headed back out to the park this morning. Another 2+ inches had fallen in the night and the snow was still coming, so it felt like rather a winter wonderland outside, as well as being about as silent as a city street can possibly get during the daytime.

Once we reached the park, I sneakily sought out the deepest patches of snow for us to wade through. 

Admittedly that tired me out too, but it's just so incredibly exciting to find a winter activity that wears out the beastie in less than two hours that I just couldn't resist! Sometimes he needed a bit of encouragement:

But when he found rabbit tracks there was no holding him back:

He was pretty patient posing for photos in the snow while I fiddled with my camera and big gloves, although admittedly, white dog + white snow + white skies + incompetent photographer don't make for the best shots.

My neighbors were out tackling the new snowfall as we made our way back home for breakfast. It's a bit like wending your way through an obstacle course at the moment. Someone had even dug under one of the really big mounds to make a little urban igloo! I thought about sending Billy in to pose for a photo but realized that it was probably none too stable and didn't want to run the risk of burying my hound. Which of course begs the question, who let their kids climb in there?!

It's early to bed for me again tonight as we did more snow-bounding this afternoon when I got back from work. However, I'll leave you with the real reason for this post's title...