At first, I thought Zip was waiting for me to come out in the morning, but this week, I realized he was waiting for Zinnia. The two of them have invented several games to play when it snows. One – today’s – is for Zip to play hide and seek while Zinnia madly races around my car, barking in search of him.

Zip hides behind a tire and swats Zinnia on the nose (claws in) while he races from one side of the car to the other. They can do this for a long time. A second game is for Zip to run to the garden bed and hide and then make a break to the barn while Zinnia rates back and forth, trying to catch up with him. Zinnia is…well, not built for racing a barn cat.

They have several games like this – I’ll get a video, or Maria will play them when he has time. I have as much time watching these, too – they are inseparable now – as they seem to have been playing.

Zinnia is a snow dog, but so is Zip. He loves to listen and watch for mice and moles to make their way under the snow, looking for food. I never thought Zip, a natural barn cat, would mind the snow or the cold—he doesn’t—but I didn’t expect him to have this much fun with the winter—and Zinnia, too.

Zinnia also loves snow but never had a playdate – a fraction of his size – to play with.