Dear Dog Diary,

Rupert here. These are east coast Dark Ages. The dog days of winter:

First snow yesterday - yay! All melted today though.

Taking my job of companion dog seriously, as I have been bred to do, I have accompanied DogMom up and down these stairs as she brought storage totes of holiday stuff up to the garage storage space.

Well, this has gone a bit too far. I am hanging out up here until she's done. Besides, one of those cool jingly sparkly round things might break loose, and I would have to chase it.

- Rupert, DogDiary.org, Annapolis, MD. With DogMom MJ Sweeney

Dear diary dog Rupert:

You are a wussie boxer dude!!! Dark Ages for west coast weiner dogs and friends:

Yep. It's what we doxie wa-wa's call "oh crap weather." "Burrow deeper undercover weather."

First snow month (yes- month!) is in the bag, with almost three feet of white! Not much has melted in a month. Another foot is on the way this weekend, with snow and ice and more "oh crap" temps. I heard it on the radio. We are worn out on snow. I thought the east coast dogs had worse weather than us westies. Whassup with that?

Here's a normal Oregon snow dog day on Hood River (aka Dog River) sandbar. Our surf dog family gets out there in it. Ok, well - maybe just on those extra "warm" winter days.... with weiner wetsuits and extra thick life vests:

That's me (Doodle) in back, with mom and Elvis (RIP) in the middle and Dude on the nose. We're paddling in from the Columbia River to Dog River last winter.    Photo: Patti Drabkin, www.DogDiary.org — **That's me (Doodle) in back, with mom and Elvis (RIP) in the middle and Dude on the nose. We're paddling in from the Columbia River to Dog River last winter.** Photo: Patti Drabkin, www.DogDiary.org

And here's our Dog River sandbar on a "normal" winter (don't blink before it melts) day.                Photo: Barb Ayers, www.DogDiary.org — **And here's our Dog River sandbar on a "normal" winter (don't blink before it melts) day.** Photo: Barb Ayers, www.DogDiary.org

Normally in Hood River (I mean Dog River,) we get a couple of weather wussie snow dog days each year. And that's it.
Except up on Mt. Hood, of course. Ski central!
But at our house, you go out in the morning for a pee stop in beautiful, light, shallow snow. When mom comes home from work, it's all gone for your evening pee stop - back on green grass.
Wussie days leave just enough on the ground for paw prints in white stuff. Just enough to call yourself a mountain dog...
I like "normal" winters. Does that mean I'm a weiner wussie?
Here are my dog bros in our front yard, surfing our first big snow day after leaving Dog Beach in SoCal and moving to the Pacific Northwest. I wasn't even born yet. Snow was deep but gone in a jiffy... SUPER fun, they said: