One morning soon after the full hunter’s moon, when our children were almost five weeks old, we woke to discover that the air was colder than usual and a fine covering of white was on the ground. I stepped out onto it carefully and noticed that the ground was very cold. When I turned to look back toward the hole, I discovered that I’d left a series of paw prints behind me. Pip and Squeak came out of the hole and jumped about on the cold ground. They were fascinated by the tracks that they made. Pudge came out, but, as usual, he was more interested in finding something to put inside his stomach. By the time Lexi jumped down to give us his morning greeting, the white was almost gone. “How did you like your first snow?” he called to us. “Was that snow?” Plush asked in amazement. “I thought snow was thick and deep and icy cold.” “If that was snow, we’ve nothing to be afraid of,” I said, thinking of the soft wet covering that had disappeared so quickly. It was nothing like the cloudlike stuff I’d seen in the magazine photos.
