By Lisa Timpf
Snow, enduring cold, numbing wind chill and the lack of a strong, satisfying midwinter thaw have combined to make the winter of 2013/2014 seem, for some of us, interminably long.
My Border Collie’s silent protest against the conditions is shown by the brevity of her focus-driven outdoor visits. If I walk her inordinately long, she lifts a frost-chilled front paw and bestows a beseeching look, then hightails it for the door.
She spends her indoor time dozing on the couch or in front of the wood stove, studiously ignoring the squirrels raiding the bird feeders. Here, she drifts into paw-twitching dreams, perhaps imagining herself chasing her beloved “flying disc” toy over a springy carpet of summer grass.
The cat, meanwhile, is engaged in behaviour that brings to mind the feline in Robert A. Heinlein’s 1957 novel, The Door Into Summer. No matter how chilling the outdoor temperature, he remains convinced that this time when he sticks his whiskered face out into the fresh air, surely winter will be over.
He employs a variety of techniques in his relentless search for the warm weather. Sometimes, he does the out-one-door-in-the-other routine, which becomes more frustrating when he comes in only to ask to go out again immediately after.
Other times, he perches himself on the door ledge, half-in and half-out, as if planning to remain there until the indoor air heats up the outdoors. It is usually necessary to encourage him to make up his mind one way or the other. Alas, this encouragement is sometimes less than patient.
His third method involves a brief foray into the outdoors, followed in 30 to 90 seconds – just long enough for the cold to register – by a leap up onto the window sill where he bats frantically at the glass pane until someone lets him in. Having 28 acres for him to roam in is somewhat wasted during this kind of winter.
I suppose I shouldn’t criticize him, as I am engaged in the human equivalent of his behaviour – checking the Weather Network website all too frequently for any signs of a warming trend, while fantasizing about Florida vacations.
I am encouraged, however, by a few signs of the impeding spring – one being the sprouting of numerous seed catalogues in my mailbox. Looking at pictures of flowers and vegetables, and envisioning the coming summer’s garden can be a good temporary release from the winter blahs.
I am also cheered by the thought of the daffodil and crocus bulbs hibernating under their snowy blanket.
Yes, spring is coming, I am sure of it – I’m just not sure when. We’ll have to wait and see – and have faith that one of these days, we really will be opening the door into summer.
Until then, since my dog-walking duties are at present somewhat curtailed, I’ll resign myself to being the somewhat inept doorperson for a highly impatient cat.