Dean Poling
You know it’s cold when you have to poke a hole in the circle of ice on the top of your dog’s water bowl.
Even colder when the dog walks to the door, feels the temperature and turns back inside the house. The dog doesn’t care if you’ve made a hole for her to drink from the water bowl or not. The dog has decided she isn’t that thirsty.
Dogs can give looks that speak volumes. The dog’s look seems to say: “Hope you had fun poking your thumb into my water bowl, but I’ll be staying inside, thank you very much. Now, human, if you would either be so kind as to bring my water bowl to me or lift the toilet cover because I’m not going out there. Not even in my best fur coat.”
Dogs are smart that way, possibly smarter than we humans. Dogs sense something’s not right in this neck of the woods if water bowls are freezing. Dogs stay inside.
Not us.
Christmas may be over, but the weather outside is frightful ... now. Well, maybe not frightful, but surely frigid. Cold enough to want to stay indoors, to read a book, sit by a fire, laze under a blanket with a game or a good movie on TV.
But this weather came too late. The holidays are over, and it’s back to work we go. Not for a dog, though.
The phrase “a dog’s life” was meant to convey hardships. But if a dog’s life is so difficult then how come I’m the one outside, bent over a water bowl, freezing my thumb poking holes in the ice?
How come my family and I are all heading out in the cold to jobs and schools while the dog naps in the warm indoors?
A dog’s life? A dog’s holiday is more like it.
Plus inside a house, the dog doesn’t have to hear all the human talk: “Is it cold enough for you? ... I moved to the South to get away from the cold. ... Imagine how cold it would be if not for global warming, heh, heh, heh.”
It’s not cold enough to stop some of the nonsense talking. If it were colder, our teeth might chatter so hard that we’d bite our tongues if we tried to speak. That might be a good reason for it to get a little colder.
But it is cold enough. And there is truth that this snap is rare for the South, though we’re still warmer here than many parts of the nation. As for global warming, even a kid with a high fever gets the chills. Who knows?
All we can do is bundle up the next few days. Watch out for one another. Run a little water to keep our pipes from bursting. And pray for a little more traditional Southern temperatures.
Until then, I’ll just hope my thumb doesn’t freeze poking holes in the water bowl.
Dean Poling is The Valdosta Daily Times assistant managing editor. His latest book, “Waiting for Willie,” is available at The Valdosta Daily Times’ 201 N. Troup St. offices.
