Snowball

Snowball was a Samoyed Dog I encountered in East Oakville over three decades ago who had a habit of accompanying his grade school charges to and from their classes. The day of our first encounter was a cold February day on which I was wearing at least 4 layers of clothing on my upper body and three layers below. In addition I was carrying at least 20 pounds over the allowable 35-pound limit of mail in my satchel and gloved hands. It was snowing steadily and the going underfoot was plodding at best where it hadn’t been shoveled and treacherous where it had. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a patch of white that appeared to be moving toward me at break neck speed. Yes, Snowball was bounding toward me.

Seeing a large strange dog approach one at speed is never a comforting experience for a letter carrier but the best approach most times is to stand one’s ground and if necessary interpose the mail between one’s vital parts and the attacking beast. In the present circumstances I couldn’t have moved with any speed had I wanted to and I was wearing considerable padding in any case. That ball of white continued hurtling toward me and when it reached a point 10 feet away launched itself at me placing one forepaw on each shoulder. Then, to my shock it proceeded to lick my runny nose. I’d survived that one and luckily didn’t even need to do laundry.

I worked in that area for most of a year and became well acquainted with Snowball who continued his school yard supervision. Everyone seemed to know him but I later heard that a negative encounter with some child resulted in a bad end for the wandering canine. I’ll leave it to my readers to draw their own conclusions.

In the same neighbourhood I had occasion to meet a grizzled German Shepherd named Caesar one summer’s day. Again this was decades ago at a time when people felt safe about leaving their homes unlocked. As I walked up to a 3000 sq ft home the front door was open and only the screen door was between me and Caesar. As I placed the mail in the box the dog, that I’d definitely never before met, lunged at the door hitting the latch and opening it. Seeing freedom in view the dog launched himself through the door and not wanting to be in the same space as the dog I quickly jumped inside the house and got the door closed.

Now I was inside the foyer and the dog was outside barking loudly. What to do? Imagine my chagrin after making considerably more noise I came to the realization that there was no one at home. Oh, there was a telephone in the foyer but even I realized I’d never live it down if I called this one in. So I settled down and after a while Caesar got bored and went off to investigate the neighbourhood. When I was satisfied that the dog was nowhere in sight I cautiously resumed my deliveries unharmed. It was days later that I talked to the dog’s regular letter carrier and learned that once he got outside the dog was harmless. You could have fooled me.