It was a beautiful Adirondack morning on Saturday. Yes, it was a little cool, but the sun was out, it had snowed a bit the night before and there was a hint that Spring was just around the corner.

I usually don’t take Toby for that many walks outside in the winter, because I worry about the road salt, but it didn’t look that bad, so I decided to skip the gym and take him for a walk to the lake like we do in the summer. Plus, I have almost no Toby/Lake George winter photos.

As soon as I pulled out my sneakers from the bed, Toby jumped off and started to get excited. He absolutely knew what those sneakers meant. The tail was wagging and he wouldn’t leave my side.

I put on his harness and coat, and we started out the door. He eagerly ran down the driveway and past the first three neighbors houses.

And then stopped.

He looked absolutely miserable, was shaking a little and would alternate lifting his rear right paw and front right paw off the ground.

A 5 minute walk turned into 20 minutes and we weren’t even close to the end of the street yet. A neighbor drove past us twice. To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement. After arguing with him the middle of the street, I finally gave in and decided to turn around and go home.

Well, that little stinker walked perfectly fine back to the house, and gladly ran right up the steps and into the house. Once in the house he grabbed his toy and started running around like a maniac, which of course made me yell at him again, “well, that paw doesn’t look like it’s hurting now!”

Then he went by the door. I figured he had to go out. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to go for a walk.

Nope.

As soon as I opened the door he zoomed out of it, and ran all over through the snow. Since he took his toy outside, I threw it for him and he went chasing after it.

You would have never known that just 10 minutes before, he didn’t want to walk and was acting like he didn’t feel well. When, I really think, all he wanted to do was play in the snow!

He definitely pulled one over one me, and got exactly what he wanted — a romp in the white stuff.