Those days when you should follow your first instinct...

February 2012-After a late track meet last night my sweet dogs waited until 6:16am to whine at the bedroom door and shake me out of bed. I used their outside time to make coffee and crawled back in until 7:37! Happy to wake up to coffee I poured a second cup before I realized the pack and I probably needed a little fresh air so we headed out in the cold tails a waggin'! We got far enough out on a lonely road that I felt comfortable, except for the voice inside my head whispering-are you sure you want to do that, letting the young pups loose to frolic. It took them exactly 2 and half minutes to find a deer carcass. We ran our out and back, with Chance lagging behind to enjoy a tasty lower leg. The other dogs knew to ignore him, which was fine until it was time to run back out into civilization and put him back on a leash with the rest of them! I knew leashing him up to the others was going to be a scary task, so to start out I tied the 3 dogs to a post across the road from the beast. I knew getting him to join back with the pack after enjoying his tasty leg would be a bad idea, yet didn't listen to that little voice in my head. As soon as I got them all situated Bandit took a sniff and snap! Dogfight! I run with these dogs basically tied around my waist-it requires superhero moves to separate 2 fighting dogs from each other and 2 more scared shitless. We made it home with minimal bloodshed, but completely shot nerves! Within an hour the family was packed up to enjoy another great day at Whiteface. We'd been there a couple days before and conditions were perfect, despite a not so perfect type of winter. Perfection can only last so long and ice covered the mountain. A skier had a fatal crash the day before and people chatting about it on our trip up in the gondola made me feel like vomitting. I suggested a couple of trails to Kevin-one that was challenging but had been overflowing with fresh snow on our previous visit and one that was easy for our rattled minds no matter how much ice we encountered. In my infinite rattledness I went along with the family and chose the challenging trail. when we got to the top of the trail I began to panic! It felt like we were on a frozen lake that had simply been tipped sideways! I couldn't move and did what any good mother would do in the situation, started swearing at my husband. Ruby just put her head down and followed her dad carefully down the ice rink while I swore and swore and swore and didn't budge. Kevin suggested I take my skis of and walk down (did I mention the ice rink we were on). I did that and immediately knew I was making a big mistake and started flailing. A ski patroller stop to see if I need help and just laughed and skied away when they realized it was me losing my shit! I decided to stop listening to Kevin and put my fate in my 8 year old's calm hands. I begged her to get me off the trail. Miss Nerves of Steel saved my life by following her instincts and leading me down the safest possible trail. When we got to the bottom she revealed that she had been a little nervous but kept repeating "stay with it, stay with it" over and over in her head. Instincts, cool and calm decades beyond her 8 years :)