All weathers

So after a small interlude to introduce the cats we are back to Tilly, who I am sure would like to remind us that she is the main character of this story, thank you very much! So you now already know Tilly LOVED walking, but I haven’t yet mentioned how unwavering her desire to go on a walk was. Tilly was what can only be described as an all weather dog, come rain come shine Tilly would demand to be taken outside. Tilly would not be deterred by rain or by snow, when we were all shivering and moaning about the winter chill Tilly would be in her element. I am sure there must be some sort of scientific study into how weather changes dogs sense of smells, because let me tell you in the rain Tilly enjoyed sniffing even more than normal. Or maybe she just enjoyed seeing me get dishevelled and damp in the rain and so deliberately took her time!  * I must quickly add that no matter how desperate Tilly was to go for a walk we did not let her out in very extreme conditions such as in the heat or too much snow etc, we would never put her at risk!! *

Tilly particuarly loved walking in the snow, because she liked to eat it. Yes you heard me right, she ate the snow. Similarly to how she behaved at the beach, she would plunge her nose into the piles of snow and munch mouthfuls of snow. She would also catch snowballs if you threw them in the air. She just LOVED it. An interesting thing about Tilly in the snow is that it would highlight the muddy tinge on her fur. Despite looking pure fluffy white when walking on the grass in sunny weather, the presence of snow would immediately tell us that Tilly was in fact in desperate need of a bath. We would also need to wash her paws anyway after treks in the snow to remove any bits of grit that may have gotten in between her little toes. The grit would sting her feet and we would often resort to carrying her through any gritted sections of our walk because she would tell us as soon as she was uncomfortable by digging her toes in and refusing to move. We also tried to make sure we stayed away from any paves with grit on, but rest assured if we accidently missed some Tilly would let us know! As Tilly got older she was less immune to the cold that she so adored frollicking in when in her youth, so we had to take much more care to ensure that she was well covered. She had a couple of different coats and jumpers, which although she was at first reluctant to wear she soon decided were brilliant ways to ensure she could still go for as many walks as she liked. My personal favourite jumper was a little jolly festive one with a smiling gingerbread man on the back. She only got to where that one a couple of times….

Tilly was not so good with the heat, as I expect most of you would guess as dogs in general do struggle in the summer months. Imagine how we would feel with a thick woollen coat on when it is over 25 degrees outside, we would be puddles! I once read that we should consider, if a we are too shorts in a vest and a top to be walking outside, then our dogs are DEFNITELY too hot to be walking in their lovely furry coats. We would walk Tilly very early in the mornings and try to contain her inside the house. She loved lying on the back of a chair by the window luxirating in the suns ray, and so this is how she passed the summer away. She would sometimes sit and chew her toys but in general she was content to snooze away, dreaming of all the fun adventures which she had in cooler times.