Brave Little Dogs in Sweaters

At the risk of belaboring the cold weather theme, I have yet another entry about how tediously long winter has been. The local meteorologists seem to be entirely too cheerful when they report (multiple times) that temperatures this winter have been about 13 degrees below what we normally have this time of year.

My sweet munchkins have bravely endured the cold weather. Most of this enduring involves napping under blankets and wearing sweaters all day, but they are still being brave little dogs.
Somehow, and how is still, umm, not clear, they have each accumulated several sweaters. (OK. OK. There are, at last count, 16 dog sweaters in our house, and 4 little water repellent dog coats, two of which have battery-operated rows of lights to make them visible at night.) Since Ivan and Dasa wear sweaters every day throughout the winter, they need extras so there are always some available when others are in the laundry. These are necessary for warmth. The fact that the munchkins look too fetching for words is merely a bonus.The baby-sitter leaves detailed little notes about her visits, and during the winter these always include comments on how cute their little sweaters are. She once commented that Ivan and Dasa were so cute they almost didn’t look real. (Can you tell we just love this baby-sitter who obviously has extremely good taste. She also loves the munchkins, so we are thrilled to have her.)Ivan knows sweaters are warm, and will hold out a paw to step into the sweater. This feat of amazing cooperation is usually preceded by me holding up a bit of freeze-dried chicken and saying “You get the chicken after we put on the sweater.” Then he allows me to wriggle him into the sweater, kiss his head, and tell him he's amazing and wonderful before he gets the chicken.Dasa is wonderfully sweet and compliant about most things, so she allows me to kneel by her, give snuggles, and slip her into her sweater with no resistance. She, of course, gets a chicken bit too.Brave as the munchkins have been, we are all very tired of dreary cold weather, and can’t wait for spring. Then we can pack away the sweaters, and they can be brave little dogs by napping in sunspots on the carpet and lolling in the sun in the backyard.