SNOW!

The patio door opened and I was away in an instant, bounding in great strides across the patio. It took two good leaps and I slammed face first into the fluffy white pile at the edge of the newly shovelled swath of concrete. I rolled, coming through the other side and skidding down the little slope before coming to rest on my back.

I jumped up nd in n instant was standing in snow up to my chest. Smudge was standing on the patio, just as prim and proper as ever. Her nose was turned up slightly, like she was some snooty upper crust Persian purebred and not black and white short-haired dumpster trash like me.

Fat fluffy-white snow flakes drifted from the night sky, like tiny little spirits. They tumbled and landed in my fur. One settled on my wet nose and hung there a moment before disappering before my eyes. It was magical and I for the first time envied the humans who could laugh and cheer over such tiny wonders. That excitement roared in my chest so that the only thing remaining was to roll and twist in that cold wet snow. From the patio Smudge watched jealously for a moment, when she thought I wasn't looking.

"What gives, doll?" I exclaimed, shaking off snow clinging to the fur and whiskers over my eyes. "Cut loose and live a little."

"I'm just fine right here," she replied. Truth be told she had loosened up a bit lately, but there was still that reticence to really let her black and white hair down.

"The fun is out here, in the snow," I said. "You don't know what..."

"What I'm missing?" she looked down her long black nose. Smudge loweredher ears as if to make a point. I could see the gentle sweeping motion of her tail and new it was all an act.

"I'm just saying."

"I spent a winter on the streets, sleeping in dumpsters, chasing scrawny mice for a meal, trudging from one dump to the next through snow and sludge and cold. I ate plastic some days just fill my belly and caught a cold that all but did away with me. Now I have a warm house, humans that are slaves to most everything I want, a nice soft bed, decent food, and I am I thank the good Mother Earth everyday for that blessing. Now if you will excuse me I am going back inside to lick myself and take a nap!"

What an act! Give her the Academy Award. I shook my head and took another run at that snow drift. Coming up a second time I spied Smudge in the window beside the lavender plant. "Dames!"