On Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 5:39:11 PM UTC-6, wrote:
After 25+ years of shoveling my deck

snips

My wife says, in part because of knee replacement, that she is not
shoveling the deck this year.
Great by me as last year her hacking ice off it requires me to re-stain
it this spring.
In the winter, the deck is for the birds. Let them shovel it.

And I thought that I was the only idiot in the world
who shovelled snow off the back deck !
.. I sense a therapy group forming.
Our long-gone dog - a real good dog in most respects -
- would use the snow-covered deck as his toilet -
- but if the deck was shovelled-off - he would always
go down into the small dog run ... ie on the ground -
.. even if there was snow-up-to-his-balls in the dog run.
he was a tall dog he wouldn't go on the shovelled deck.
My neighbours dog - a large breed - won't go in the deep snow -
- needs to be walked to a clear area - go figure.
John T.

Dogma, my 6 lb toe biter was freaked out by the rare snowfall accumulation that was higher than he was tall. I made him mad when I tossed him out into the yard and he went POOF! as he disappeared into the snow. I had to go rescue him. The last winter I spent at home, the lowest temp was 4 degrees F and I kept the critter off the floor as much as possible because the temperature of the hardwood floors in the old house was a lot lower than that in my lap. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Mean Monster