TheBanyanTree: Durl Pup Lands on Mysterious Ice Planet (accompanied by her faithful companion)

[B Drummond]

January 29th, 2005

"An area of sleet and freezing rain will continue to move east across north 
and central Georgia through 10 am. More precipitation will develop over 
Alabama and move into West Georgia as well. Additional sleet and ice 
accumulations of less than a quarter inch are possible. Roads will be 
icy...especially bridges and overpasses. Motorists are urged to use caution 
and slow down."


And sure enough, just as the weather crew predicted the ice storm came.

Ice storms don't care about bodily functions, you know, and that meant that I 
had to take the durl dawg out for her morning constitutional in the middle of 
this ice storm.  She was utterly confused.  She acted as though she had been 
transplanted to another planet and she shook the whole time, mainly in fear 
instead of the cold. She, being a less than a year old, had never seen snow 
or ice.

With a wild look in her dilated pupils, she couldn't work out why the ground 
was white and crunchy, why it didn't harbor the same strength of smells it 
normally did and why her footsies were cold all the time.  After a while if 
she stayed in place for any length of time,  her paws froze lightly to the 
layer of ice pellets covering everything she  stood on. When she tried to 
move this new planet seized her and set off new worries deep inside her 
canine cranium.

With the forces of nature at work mightily within her she finally had to 
overcome her terror and allow Mother Nature to have her way or risk exploding 
into a thousand bits of dog fur and other unsavory pieces.
She, gravely confused as to whether it was appropriate or not to do such 
deeds on this new planet she had been forced to land on,  paced, sniffed, 
trembled, scratched at the ice pellets, and whimpered until she could 
endure no more,  relented and did her part to stink up the neighborhood 
and contribute to our local soil's re-hydration.

And it was not a minute too soon 'cause my hands were Popsicles and I wasn't 
exactly thrilled with way every tree and bush cracked and snapped each time 
the wind howled through them.  I was in no mood to have to dodge falling, 
frozen limbs, bushes or trees, especially with a dog leash in one hand, with 
a psychotic durl dawg attached to the other end of said leash, and slippery 
footing underneath extending in all 360 degrees of the compass as far as the 
eye could see.

At that , we skedaddled in slow motion over the ice, taking those little bitty 
grandma steps dictated by such footing, back into the confines of the world 
that Durl Pup knows and loves just as quickly as the mutt and I could safely 
get back into the house.

With her safely back in her cage, she and I both breathed a heavy sigh of 
relief. 

It was good to finally be back on Mother Earth again.


  bd
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Remember kids,  Each snowflake is different - collect the whole set!