Poor dog. Nine degrees but “feels like” minus-2. Her soft, domesticated paws simply are not tough enough to protect her. I liberally applied goop called “Musher” all over the pads of each paw; still, she could hardly do her business.

That was Sunday morning, the day of the big snow. Before it started, and surrounded by a kind of stone gray light, all was quiet. By the time we crossed the road to the nearest open space, she already was limping. Rabia got her business done so quickly we reentered warmth even before the coffee had finished brewing.

Poor old dog.

How, I wondered, do foxes, coyotes, and wolves survive in temperatures like we’ve had this winter? In the course of my inquiry, I was amazed to discover that sled dogs — generally closest domestic canines to their wolf ancestors — wear booties! It turns out that wild canines have retained........

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