It's a Dog's Life: Spring at Last!

Teddy much prefers fair weather so winter is a challenge, but as his human translator, Helen Stockton explains, he is keen to march on into spring

March is one of those months that transitions between seasons. It starts in winter but, hopefully, by the end, we see signs of spring. Whilst each season has its pros and cons, winter probably isn’t many people’s favourite. In its favour are long, cosy evenings in front of the wood burner and comfort food such as stews, roasts and casseroles, which, for the discerning fur, can be sources of culinary opportunity. 

A significant counterbalance to this though is the weather. As regular readers will know, I am not a dog of inclement conditions. I don’t like rain or snow. I also don’t like any attempts to mitigate the effects of both by dressing me in a coat. The apprentice, Bear, has been used to wearing coats since she was a puppy, so she takes them in her small, energetic stride, but I protest by going into ultra slow walking mode and looking miserable.

I also do the same if I don’t wear a coat and get wet – the only benefit from the dreaded clothing item is that I spend less time drying off in the kitchen when I get home. ‘Them Indoors’ have an unreasonable dislike of us drying our fur on the carpet and sofa, so they shut us in the kitchen until we’ve dried off a bit. I’m not impressed by that either,so I do barking until they let me out. Safe to say that rainy or snowywalks are a bit of a trial in our household with Bear leading the charge in her coat, pulling at her lead and eager to get on, whilst I lag behind. This results in ‘Her Indoors’ having to adopt a walking pose reminiscent of a starfish! 

Whilst rainy weather is definitely not confined to the winter, as we emerge into spring we should get more sunshine. I enjoy finding a patch of sunlight and snoozing, a practice referred to in our household as ‘sun puddling’. Myself and the apprentice align ourselves perfectly to the source of warmth. We also enjoy some outside time in the garden. If ‘Them Indoors’ try to encourage me outside in the winter, I usually just stand by the door looking mournfully back into the nice, warm kitchen, whereas when the weather is more obliging, I’m happy to snooze or play a noisy game of chase with the apprentice. In spring ‘Them Indoors’ resume their gardening and outdoors activities and, of course, these require close supervision. 

And talking of close supervision, March has an added bonus this year. Shrove Tuesday, which is normally in February, has sneaked into spring. We shall be paying very close attention to the pancake department. Each season has its blessings, what can I tell you!