It has been so cold here the last few days that I can't even stay outside very long because I get asthma right away. It is supposed to be -25 wind chills this weekend with -10 actual temperature. That is really cold for my part of the world.
This cold weather with the snow over the last week has brought to mind some of the wintertime memories I have of my friend Toby and the time we spent together.
I remember one winter when it snowed and snowed. We got a lot of wind one night, and the drifts were so high that they completely covered up one side of the fence. During the night, we had a little freezing mist that hardened the drifts like rock. Toby had the best time walking up this drift and looking over the top of the fence. It was cold enough that he could do this for days. Then one afternoon, it got a little warmer. The snow became a little mushy. Toby started to run up the drift and it caved in on him. He totally disappeared. I ran over and started digging quickly and pulled him out of the drift. He was covered in snow and looked shocked. I got him in the house really quick and dried him off. He didn't climb up drifts after that.
One winter, the temperatures were even colder than what I've already mentioned. Toby went out for about two minutes then came back in. When he came in he was just standing in one place and wouldn't move. I quickly called our veterinarian about what was happening. He said that since some of Toby's joints were arthritic, he may have frozen up. At the vet's suggestion, I bundled Toby up and placed him close to the heater. I gave him some anti-inflammatory pills, and he was fine a little while later. He had a coat that I'd made for him, but I went a bought him a big, red plaid coat. He looked so nice in that coat, and it kept him from getting too cold when he had to go outside and take care of business.
When it wasn't super cold, I used to go out with Toby and we would play in the snow. He loved the snow. He liked for me to make snowballs and toss them so that he could eat them. We liked to take short hikes through the orchard when there was snow on the ground. We both felt at our best when it was about 40 degrees outside. The snow was still on the ground though fading fast.
We lived in a really old house that was hard to keep warm in the winter. I still live there by myself now. Part of the house was built in the 1890s. They added some on in the early 1950s, and there was another room added in 1970. The oldest part of the house is like an icebox in the winter.
When it was cold, I always made sure that Toby and me would be as warm as possible at night in my room. He didn't like to sleep in the bed. He liked to sleep right by me on the left side of the bed. I always made sure that he had a cover at night so he stayed warm enough. I also bought us a little heater to run in the room at night to stay warm. Both of us had a lot of trouble with sickness, so we had to look after ourselves.
One icy day when it was snowing, Toby got really sick. I knew that he needed to go to the veterinarian. My folks didn''t want me to get out on the roads because it was so slick and it was snowing really hard and drifting.
I thought that my Chevy S-10 would make it in 4-wheel drive if I took it slow. I was over 18 at the time, so I was going to do what I wanted to and what I thought was right in spite of them being mad at me.
I bundled Toby up and we went over to the town about seven miles over where the vet was. I could only drive about 30 miles per hour. I was so glad I took him over there, because he had a flair up of his ulcerative colitis starting. We got Toby on some good medicine, and kept the flair up from becoming really bad. We inched our way back home, and all was well.
Usually when it was cold, we would station ourselves by the stove. I would either read or listen to music. Toby liked classical music the best. I liked jazz the best, but he would always go in the other room when I played jazz, so I know that he didn't like it. I'd put on some nice music by Ralph Vaughn Williams or Benjamin Britten or Rachmaninoff or another composer. We had some very nice and relaxing evenings.
I have many memories of my time with Toby, but I'll just tell you about one more. One winter day, we were out driving around on a country road. A huge coyote came up on the road and just stood there. I stopped, and he starred right at us. We were just locked in a staring contest. Slowly, the big coyote walked down into the corn stubble field. Every two or three steps, he would look back and stare at us. We watched him for about 15 minutes. No other cars came by. For the next several nights when we were out on our evening walk or having an astronomy viewing session, we could hear the coyotes yelping off in the distance. I wondered if that was the big coyote we had seen. I had a piece about this published in The Snowy Egret nature magazine a few years ago.
It's a good thing that Toby never saw a coyote out on our walks. He would have gone after the coyote. Toby had no fear of anything. There would have been a fight, and I'd have had to jump in and help him, so who knows what would have happened.
I miss my friend Toby a lot today. I'm feeling really sad that we aren't together anymore. On Christmas Day I felt so bad I decided to go to the movies just so I didn't have to be in the house anymore.
This weekend with it being so cold, I am worried about my car. Would you please pray that it starts OK and I don't have any problems. I'm going to put it in the garage, but the garage is not heated. I am going to put a little heater in there. My new job is starting on January 8, and I don't want to have any problems right now.
I miss my dog. If he was still here, we would have gone to live somewhere else by now, and I know that my life would have been better. I don't believe that I would have had to work doing these things that I don't like. Please pray for me. I really need your prayers right now.
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