Walk

The woman unsnapped the leash and Dixie looked up at her.  First Dixie sat, then she realized she no longer had to 'heel'.
She ran off through the snow covered soy bean field.  She turned and ran back to the woman who only smiled and let her bare fingers trace the top of Dixie's head.
Dixie pushed her nose hard into the hand and took off again for another boisterous romp through the deep snow.

Dixie quickly discovered that it was much easier to follow in the woman's snow shoe tracks and let her break the deep trail.  When there was a deer path in the snow, Dixie ran ahead smelling and pushing her face deep under the snow.

It made the woman smile.  Dixie liked that.  They hiked across a large open field.  The woman kept doing something with a camera.  She never said a word except a quiet 'Good Girl Dixie' whenever Dixie checked back with the woman.

While going through a drift, the woman paused to catch her breath.  Dixie took that moment to stand on the back ends of the snow shoes.  The woman tried to take a step forward and ended up going face down in the snow.

Immediately Dixie decided the woman needed help and assurance.  Surely she shouldn't be sputtering snow.  Well, maybe she smelled something good.  Dixie plunged her face into the snow next to the woman and smelled.

The woman said something quietly that sounded like 'sh...t'.  Then the woman reached out and firmly grasped Dixie's back and helped her self up.
Then came the nice gentle hand and the trace of the finger across Dixie's skull.
Dixie was so pleased that she banged her hard long tail against the woman's legs.

The snow fell hard, sometimes the horizon where the field met the sky would disappear.  Dixie didn't mind, she was with the woman.

Dixie turned to eat some snow.  The woman called softly to her.  The woman opened up a bottle and poured water into her palm.  Dixie liked that.  Water from the nice hand.

They came across a scary place.  It was an abandoned mobile trailer on the edge of the field.  Dixie growled.
The woman put her camera away and carefully looked around.
Coyote tracks.

The woman called Dixie quietly to her side.  Dixie obeyed and sat in the deep snow.  The woman stood rock still and watched the woods and the edges of the fields.
She saw it.  A slinking coyote.  The woman touched Dixie softly on the head and said 'Come'. 
They headed back following the broken trail.  The woman watched carefully for the coyote, but he/she had melted off into the deep woods.

When they reached the road, the woman took off her snow shoes.  She held up the rope with a snap and clicked it.  Dixie came and sat next to the woman. 
They walked down the road towards home, Dixie walking quietly and stately by the woman's side.