Valkrys and the Big Snow

Valkrys and the Big Snow by AR Travis

Of all the mischief she might have caused, one thing Valkrys loved to do more than play was work. Yeah I know that is a tough concept for us humans, but she really, really, really loved to pull! She would get very excited when I would get out her harness from the closet and put it on her.

Living in North Carolina, needless to say there had never really been much snow, but that year we had three feet! That was more snow than many folks from NC had ever seen all piled together in one year. Everything was shut down for two weeks! Valkrys and G’kar were overjoyed! As soon as I got them outside in their harnesses, they rolled in the snow, yipping and howling it up, impatient for me to get the toboggan. James was more excited than ever to get on the toboggan. Where we lived, the only really big hill was in the woods and not a sufficient place to go sledding, but no matter. Two dogs and a toboggan beats a full snow any day.

With me in front, Valkrys and G’kar next, pulling James on the toboggan, off we went to get the mail. We lived on a long private country dirt road, and our mailbox was all the way to the end of the road, and more snow was falling as we happily made our way there. It was quiet with the lazy flakes drifting through the trees like lacy faeries to rest on the white-covered ground. The main road was still covered in ice and snow, and the mailman alas, had not made the trip. So we returned empty handed, but all smiles back to the house, around the house, out making snowmen, and finally for a snowfight. Valkrys and G’kar kept trying to bite the snowballs or pieces as they dropped back into the snow.

Wet, cold and hungry, but all very happy, we bundled back in to the house. James and I had hot cocoa and cookies and Valkrys and G’kar got a nice biscuit. Every day for the next week, Valkrys would go to the closet where I kept her harness and whine until I hooked her and G’kar up, and off we would go, down to the mailbox and back.

The third week it warmed up to fifty, and all the snow melted away. Valkrys would come back in from doing her business with a sad face, and would mope by the closet where her harness was, dreaming of more snow.