Another snowy day

Luckily there's no school today. District made us take the day unpaid to "save money". I was irritated at first, but now I'm actually glad. It's been raining and now it's snowing. First part of the season it was exciting. Now, it's just messy:-) Course, it might not seem so if it weren't for my wonderful canine companions who love to go in and out all day when they can!
The attached pics are of my girl Lexy. I love to watch her in the snow (okay, it's not really so bad when it snows:-) A friend of mine always referred to her as a Russian princess because the winter has always seemed to be her favorite time of year. Could have something to do with the fur! I always have to take a bunch of pictures to get one or two good ones. I love taking her picture though. I could be biased, but I adore her burgundy brown eyes. She's always had a playful spirit, but when she looks up and that little sparkle in her eyes shows up in the pictures I feel like I've caught a tiny piece of her that will be with me forever.
She's been with me for 10 years now. Hard to believe there was a life before her. I got Lexy as a pup. Sheesh, sometimes I'm amazed that we both made it through that time. What a stinker!!! It's been said that the most intelligent dogs can make the worst pups. Well, that was definitely the case with this one. Destructive, harder than heck to potty train because when she got mad or upset, she would use that to show me. She was also full of so much energy! Luckily we lived across the street from a park at the time and spend a lot of time there. The neighbors all knew her before me since she was the neighborhood hobo dog. We needed each other and both of us were stubborn and hard headed. She has turned out to be an amazing dog with qualities that I think any dog owner could be envious of:-)
Even with all that energy and willfulness, she's always been especially gentle and curious about other living things. When I brought Lexy in I already had pet rats in the house. She instinctively must have thought they were her pups or something because she'd always try to mother them. A habit that not all of the rats I've had over the years have appreciated. One rat in particular, Raphael, was a curly haired, dumbo eared little white rat. As sweet as the day was long with me, always giving kisses. Whew, he hated Lexy with a passion! And it made Lexy so sad it was almost funny! She wanted so badly to be his bud, but I'd have to keep HIM away from her! He'd try to bite her, he'd charge at her, he even bit me once trying to get her, but seemed to realize what he'd done and immediately became submissive. Most of the other guys have enjoyed Lexy, mostly because of her thick fur:-) They'd love to curl up between her front paws under the huge tufts of hair on her chest.
Now that Lexy is older, she has of course mellowed out. She's been the best dog and friend that I've ever known. She's always there no matter what. I love all my critters, but Lexy will always be my baby. I used to worry about how long she'd be around, but one of the great things about working with senior dogs is that you learn to stop worrying about things like that and start truly enjoying the gifts that our bubs bring us today. After all, that's really all that matters, noticing the gifts right in front of us instead of worrying about what may or may not be.