It's Not the Cold, You Know......

We thought Joey might enjoy some cooler weather, so we took a short trip to Kissimmee to the Gaylord Palms resort to see their “Ice!” display.  This is a big indoor ice sculpture display kept at about 9 degrees.  No, that is not centigrade.  That is walk-in freezer cold, Back home in Nebraska or Ontario cold.  Cold enough that they warn you NOT to lick the ice.  Everything in there but the floor is made of ice.  They give you a parka when you walk in, but hat and gloves are your own responsibility.  I figured that if Joey showed any sign of being cold, I would just take him outside.  We weren’t inside for more than a couple seconds when Joey went totally nuts!  He was jumping up and down like a rabbit, and even squirmed out of his guide dog coat.  We were trying to get his coat back on and found out that he did not like the gloves we were wearing.  We finally got him calmed down and he was just fine thru the entire exhibit.  I made sure I knew exactly where his tongue was at all times.  He is extremely fond of ice cubes and here we were, surrounded by millions of pounds of it. 

 I don’t think Joey ever knew it was ice, I wouldn’t let his nose get very close. 

He didn’t show any signs of being cold while we were in there, but when we walked out into warm air again, he went nuts again.  It took longer to calm him down this time.  It became pretty clear to us that it wasn’t the cold that bothered him, it was the sudden temperature change.  Once we had a normal dog again, we saw Santa Claus was visiting Kissimmee today.  Well that saved us another trip to the mall.  We were able to get our boy’s yearly photo with the great bearded one.  Only this year, we had one extra face in the picture.  Joey IS part of the family. 

He was just great with Santa.  The costume didn’t seem to affect him at all, it was just another person that he wanted to have pet him.

After a walk out to the car to put away our purchases from the gift shop, and to let Joey “busy” and have a drink, we headed back in for the “Snow” exhibit.  This was definitely a waste of money.  Anyone in central Florida considering going to this resort to see these exhibits should skip “Snow”.  “Ice!” is worth the admission, “Snow” is not.  Since we were already in there, we made the most of it.  Joey loved the snow.  He got to walk around on it, stood under the snow machine, and best of all, was able to put his nose in it. 

I was so worried that the snow might confuse him about whether he was inside or out.  There were signs warning people not to eat the snow, but they didn’t include the word “yellow”.   My worries were all for nothing, as Joey maintained his professional image.  Of course, there wasn’t a big temperature difference in here; only normal room temperature cooled down just a little by having all the snow in there.  If Joey ends up in one of the northern states, I hope this exposure today helps him get thru his first winter. 

To sum it all up, one dog, plus or minus 70 degrees, equals crazy rabbit.  Add gloves, equals confusion.