[alaskayorkie]

Summer cannot arrive soon enough. My apologies for the length, but I need empathy, lol. (The pics are not from today)

I decided that today would be my day to scoop the poop during my walk with Eddie and Jack to the local park, so I brought a garbage bag and a scooper. Since the snow is soft and deep, I wore snowshoes. On my way down there, a couple neighbor kids, 5 and 4, decided they wanted to join us as they often do. No problem, I thought.

Once we got there, the snow was particularly punchy and soft. The Yorkies and the kids were miserable in the slushy stuff. About 100 yards into the park, Eddie had had enough. He turned around and headed home, much to my dismay.

I couldn't leave the kids, so I decided to let Eddie fend for himself on our relatively isolated street while I found a shortcut to try to head him off. Hauling what was now probably 15 pounds of dog doo/snow, I ran into a soggy mess. Even on my snowshoes, I sank in up to my knees and fell to my side a couple times. The kids, meanwhile, were starting to panic and whimper. The water was spilling over their rubber boots. I finally decided to pick the kids up one by one and carry them to solid ground. That worked just fine until Jack decided he didn't like being so far away from me. With a kid in one arm, a bag of poop and scooper in the other, I watched Jack dive off a ledge of snow into what for him was neck-deep slush, soaking his fleece coat and booties.

I still couldn't drop the kids, so I sloshed my way to firmer ground and flung the 4-year-old. I then scooped a now-shivering Jack out of the pool of ice and grabbed the 5-year-old too. We made our way toward home and found Eddie giving us a bewildered look as he waited patiently at the edge of the park.

I hope the neighbors weren't watching, because the thought of a 50-year-old with two Yorkies and two kids in tow fighting for his very life in a city park not 100 yards from his front door is embarrassingly comical even to me.

Summer can't arrive soon enough.