Esther Moonstomp Books

Merry, the puppy, bounded out through the back door and stopped. It was cold! Very cold. He turned and looked back at his mummy.

“It’s winter, Merry, and snow is on the way.”

Merry didn’t know what snow was. He loved the garden in the summer when it was full of pretty flowers and he could doze in the warm sun. He liked autumn too and racing through all the crunchy leaves. But now it was winter and something called snow was coming. He wasn’t sure if he liked the sound of that.

A few days later and Merry had forgotten all about snow. He had a nice new coat which kept him dry and cozy on his wintry walks and when they arrived home, he was dried with a soft, warm towel before he snuggled up to his mummy, right by the fire.

One morning, Mummy nudged him awake.

“It’s been snowing,” she said.   

Merry raced over to the window. He didn’t mind winter anymore so he was sure he could cope with snow, whatever it was.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. The grass has been green the day before. Now there was something white and fluffy covering the whole garden.

Gentle swirls of white floated down to the ground.

“Is all that white the snow?” Merry asked.

“Yes,” Mummy said. “That’s snow, Merry.”

A sudden gust of wind whipped up the snow and squished it against the window. Merry pawed at it eagerly.

“It’s outside, Merry, not on the inside!” Mummy laughed. “Let’s go outside and play in the snow.”

Merry followed his mummy outside. He watched as her paws left lots of prints in the snow. Merry jumped after her, looking back at the pretty patterns his own paws were making. It was great fun, but the snow was very cold on his paws!

“Now you’ve seen the snow, Merry, shall we go inside and cuddle up by the fire?”

‘Let’s play chase first,’ Merry cried, leaping into the air and running off, with a twitch of his tail.

But Merry was running too fast. Suddenly his feet fell over one another and he found himself rolling down to the bottom of the garden. He hoped he stopped soon.

Merry did. But he couldn’t see anything – only white. He heard Mummy chuckling and tried to move. He couldn’t – he was stuck. With every roll, Merry had gathered up more and more snow.              

“I’ve seen the children make snowmen in the snow, but I think you’re the very first snowdog, Merry!” Mummy giggled.

Merry felt Mummy scraping some of the snow away. Now he could move! He shook his fur and all the flakes of snow flew from him, back onto the ground.  He rather liked the idea of being the first snowdog, but it was far too cold to be one for very long.

Merry yawned. It was quite exhausting being a snowdog too! He was soon inside, nuzzling up to Mummy, before falling fast asleep. Playing in the snow could wait for another day. 

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