It had snowed 2 days before.  Not much, just a couple of inches of fluffy, sugary white stuff.

For days, her little footprints were still clearly visible.  Into the woods behind my house.  Headed half way to my neighbors house to check on his dog.  The flattened area where she rolled.  She loved to roll in snow.

The steady cold weather ensured that those footprints would remain undisturbed for weeks.  Looking at them crushed me and always brought another round of weeping.

When the temperature climbed to  just above freezing, the gradual melt made the prints bigger, then bigger still, until it was  large patches of grass with little snow.   She loved to roll in that, too.  I could somehow still see footprints.

My heart is broken into a million tiny pieces still.  But I can more often think of her without tears.

 I miss her.