Mitzi is a rescue dog. A friend found her in a shelter in Hayward, California, and brought her to us in 2013. At the time, she was 3 months old and weighed 30 pounds. Now she weighs 80 pounds. She is the world’s sweetest dog. She loves other dogs and is surprised when they don’t love her back. She snuggles up to strangers, hoping they will pet her. Her most remarkable display of sweetness occurred a few months ago when I brought her with me to the neighborhood pharmacy. There was a man in his mid-30s in a wheelchair. His arms were curled and bent. He looked very unhappy. Mitzi broke away from me and ran to him; for an instant, I worried what she was doing. Then I saw she was kissing his arms and reached up to kiss his face. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch what was happening. The man smiled broadly. Mitzi loved him. He wasn’t unhappy anymore.

This video was made on Saturday after the Grayson snowstorm in  Brooklyn. You will see that Mitzi’s favorite activity is what I call snow-diving. When she left home, she had four mittens on her paws. You will hear my voice in the background, laughing, then saying that she just lost the third one. After this short video, she got rid of the fourth one. She doesn’t care that they protect her paws from the salt that people put on the snow to melt it. I give up. No more paw covers for Mitzi. No more coat either. She shakes it off. She loves the snow.