Doggy Boots

The bitter cold here continues. This is this morning's temperature at 8:00 AM.

Poor Molly - when we take her outside, sometimes she begins lifting her paws in reaction to the cold weather!

My friend, Kathy Nimmer, loaned me something I had not heard of - doggy boots!

She explained that every guide dog comes with a set, but that she had gotten Nacho a set that had a fur lining. ("He's not spoiled!" she said sheepishly.)  And since she had a second set, she loaned me Nacho's first set for the winter.

Kathy and Nacho.

"Most dogs go crazy the first time you put them on, and they take some getting used to," she warned. Uh oh. That was not going to work for Molly. She is already skittish, and we are working so hard on helping her see that she now lives in a safe and secure spot where no one will hurt her. I think trying to put boots on her that we already know will upset her is not in her best interest right now.

So, I will hang onto them and see if we get to the point where I feel comfortable introducing them to her. And in the meantime, we are going for shorter times outside and staying out of the deeper snow which seems to activate the paw lifting.

She's come a long way in the month we have had her. It's been a lot of work, but we are making progress.