Our dog hates snowmen. Her name is Frida and she is a whippet/retriever mix. She loves the snow and when she’s outside in it, she runs about happily.

This past winter, my husband and I built a snowman in our back yard. We're both from the South now living in the Midwest so building a snowman is a novel experience. The snowman stood less than two feet tall with branches for arms and pieces of bark for eyes and a mouth.

But Frida didn't like him. When it was finished and we brought Frida over to see it, she barked at it repeatedly. This is a dog that normally never barks.

We, of course, thought this was hilarious and took a picture of her sitting next to it. The picture shows her keeping a fearful watch of the frozen goblin out of the corner of her eye.

For the next couple days, whenever we let her out in the backyard, she would run over to the snowman and bark at it before running away. She did this until it melted.

Next winter, we plan to fill the backyard with an army of snowmen and see what happens.

Finnegan was given to me when I was a sophomore at Swarthmore.   It was in the 70's and I was experiencing a very deep existential gloom  and practicing experimentation that more than once took me to the brink.  At that time,  I was not close to my parents; in fact I was in full revolt.  Still, somehow they landed on the perfect method to reach out and enable me to save myself.  They asked me one weekend to accompany them on a  visit to  a barn located somewhere near the school.  We chose a puppy for me even though it had never crossed my mind that I needed a dog.  At that moment my life changed. There was someone to care for and take care of, laugh at, run with and swim beside. Although she went to all my classes (it was the 70's) and became a common sight on the campus, she and I  didn't need to discuss politics or Marxism, religion or physics.  We could take time to notice the colour of the sky and the shapes of the clouds.  We had to deal with real issues like mud on her undercarriage and we had to deal in the literal sense as it was spring in Pennsylvania.  There was  relief from dwelling on questions like "Why?"

To date I have had 7 golden retrievers, all but two bred down from Finnegan.  Some stand out in my mind more than others.  That is how life goes.  I will probably chose Finnegan for my piece of jewelry.  Her great-great grandson, Tupelo, was also very special.  He died July 17th, a year and a half ago.  I am tossing around the choice in my head.  ( It would be impossible for me to pick one of my children as there are 7, and 6 would be sad.  )

Nyx the library cat Nyx was the Greek goddess of night and feline Nyx (born without eyeballs) is the goddess  of the Chesterfield County Public Library Collection Management Department.  She hopes to avoid the random county drug tests required of all staff  since she has a serious cat nip habit.  She rides around on library carts, burbles and purrs, whacks and waps at assorted toys and is an invaluable part of the department. She has a web page and a Facebook fan club with over 200 fans from around the world.

Nyx: http://overbooked.com/nyx