Snow squalls entertained us while we were eating breakfast yesterday, viewing through the sliding patio doors as a violent wind gusting through the area picked up huge skeins of snow from rooftops, scattering the snow everywhere below, with the squalls bringing us not snowflakes but tiny, perfect pearls of snow that quickly accumulated and continued to be whisked by the wind, hither and yon. There were swirling white-out conditions, beautiful to look at and adding to the season's snow accumulation.

With those wind gusts came mild temperatures, but the wind presaged an imminent change in the weather, that much was evident. And though the morning had been heavily cast with an aluminum-shaded sky that kept releasing its burden of snow energetically scattered by the wind that folded tree tops back and forth, ruffling shrubs and doing its utmost to make the mild temperature seem colder than it was, by afternoon the sky had cleared though the wind remained and the temperature was steadily falling from its initial morning -1.4C.

By the time we decided to take ourselves and Jackie and Jillie off to the ravine for our daily ramble along the forest trails it was early afternoon and the temperature read -4.5C under clear skies, the trees in the garden still bending under the force of the wind. We decided that at that temperature our puppies would be fine dressed only in their winter coats and without boots. Their cold toleration dissipates around -7C, particularly with newfallen snow underfoot. We reckoned they'd be just fine.

And sure enough, they scampered about as soon as they were released to the landscape, excitedly paying no mind to the wind, bolting without restraint down the first hill that descends into the ravined forest and the creek running through it below. We thought that even taking the wind into account -- which was notably less severe within the ravine that it had been up at street level -- it seemed colder than what the thermometer had informed us. We were determined to have a good long hike through the trails; we'd been refraining from taking such long hikes on previous days when the cold was deep enough to be truly breath-taking, satisfying ourselves temporarily with shorter sprints.

It wasn't long into our walk when we came across someone we'd seen on an earlier occasion for the first time with his unusual Labrador, easily half the size of a normal Lab and with a spectacularly beautiful red coat, a shy dog but friendly and happy to make the acquaintance of our two rude little ruffians. He was a British-style Lab, we were informed, his name was Chester, and dwarfism accounted for his attenuated presence; a condition which had also somewhat contorted his legs making it difficult for him to climb stairs.

They walked alongside us for a good portion of our hour-and-a-half in the ravine. Chester seemed to fit right in with Jackie and Jillie's rambunctious attitude, though he was far more restrained than they are typically; yet they were fairly companionable. They weren't the only ones we came across, others we are far more familiar with had made an effort to take advantage of the 'milder' weather conditions and shelter from the wind that the forest environment offers to a good degree.

Toward the end of our hike, it became evident that our puppies were finally feeling the cold, just as it was obvious that the temperature was descending. Our cheeks and noses felt quite pinched from the cold and the probing wind. We knew that without their boots Jackie and Jillie's little foot pads would be stuffed with that newfallen, loose snow. We tend to carry them from our house to the ravine entrance to avoid their picking up salt from the road, used to mitigate the accumulated ice and snow that covers it to avoid the crushing pain that dogs can experience if their paws are full of salt and then exposed to extreme cold.

But the effect of the growing cold, the newfallen snow and the wind was proving too much for our little pups and we picked them up to allow them to have some relief a few times before putting them back down on the trail. When we exited the ravine, however, it was evident that they were cold-cramping, lifting their tiny feet in puzzled pain, so that called for carrying them back down the street again, to our house.

Cleaning them up afterward we found their pad interstices thickly crusted with ice, something that is bound to occur in these weather conditions and which irritates all dogs enormously, spurring them to try by themselves to dislodge the discomfort. Warm water certainly helps, generously applied. A quick and easy solution stamping 'paid' to the hearty excursion into and through the forest we all look forward to daily. The temperature by then was -7.8C, and continuing to fall.