Day: February 25, 2011

There is a nasty storm raging here, about nine inches and a lot more coming and it’s heavy and wet. The cavalry showed up around 9 a.m. in the form of Chris Barrett and his Newfoundland Noah, a match for even the biggest storm. We were glad to see them and they will be back, probably more than once. This one is ugly. Donkeys in the barn. Dogs can hardly turn around, lots of shoveling and plowing through mounds of heavy and wet snow.

I took a video of Chris and Noah plowing and it gives a pretty good sense of what it’s like here right now and also of how Chris handles his truck like a maestro wields a baton. Noah is a very calm dog.

Lenore loves to hang out in the snow, especially in a storm. She doesn’t listen to Storm Center. While Maria shoveled and I fed the donkeys, Lenore found a good perch and took in the scene. Lot of snow falling off the roof. Lot of snow, period.

This storm is a whopper. Going to go until 10 tonight, and we have been shoveling all morning, Maria mostly. She has been taking some video for her website, and I’ve been hauling the camera and the Iphone all over the place. I took Rose for a short walk up the hill, but we were almost literally blown back by the snow, ice and wind.

Take the walk with us. You can hear the snow falling.

Sometimes, when I’m in bed, I think I hear the computer clacking downstairs, and once or twice, I thought I saw pawprints on the keyboard. My hyper-imagination led me to wonder if my dogs have a secret life online. Here’s how I imagine it going. At night, when we are asleep, Rose would give the all-clear and one dog would act as a lookout and the other three would turn on the computer and take turns e-mailing and browsing.

Just before sun-up, when the humans stirred, the dogs would assume their normal sleeping positions around the house. What would they do online?

– Rose would be trawling through Websites on farm management and vidoes of sheepherding on YouTube. She has created a blog on Google and has a gmail account.

She would be sending text messages to border collies in Ireland and Scotland and here exchanging stories about sheep, tips on herding moves and hilarious stories about the incompetent and foolish ways of humans. She is also downloading diagrams of crop rotation and grain recipes for sheep and lambs. I see her with a Facebook page connecting to border collies all over the planet.

– Lenore would be trawling through dog food and garbage sites, perhaps ordering 40 lb bags of organic dog food from England. She might be looking at YouTube videos on Labs hunting in the marshes in Scotland and wondering why any sane dog would run around in the cold like that. And she loves watching old Disney movies. As the Hound of Love, she might be setting up an online dating service for lovesick dogs. Maybe posting some love messages herself.

– Frieda would be on rabbit websites, pretending to be a rabbit and inviting other rabbits to come and visit Bedlam Farm in the Spring. She says she would show them the way. The rabbit Webmaster, a venerable and wise hard in Ireland, has cautioned the rabbits never to talk to strange rabbits, especially those who invite rabbits someplace. Frieda has created an online alias of “FriedaRabbit” but it hasn’t worked so far. She is persisting.

– Izzy spents his time browsing the sites of Hollywood agents. He has figured out how to photograph himself on the IPhone, and is taking photos of himself, posting them and some text on Twitter and asking for auditions to a remake of “Lassie.” He dreams of riding in a limo down Hollywood Boulevard on the way to his first film gig.

I liked thinking about it. And I have no doubt it will happen one day.