Boots

We bought Stanley some rain boots so that he could walk around in and after it rains and in the snow and not get his feet sopping wet.  He normally wears soft soled shoes during the day, but those things soak up water like a sponge if he walks through a puddle.  At any rate, the first few times we put the boots on him he HATED them.  He just looked down at his feet and screamed at them.  Most of the problem is that the boots are pretty stiff and heavy, while his normal shoes are really flexible and light.  Hmmmmm.

While we were in Tahoe we worked on a solution.  When we went out on walks around the little neighborhood where we were staying we brought the boots with us.  Julia and I wore our boots on the walk as well.  When we got to some snow, or a puddle or mud, we both went over and walked through it.  Stanley wanted to join in, but we told him he had to wear his boots to go through the dirty/wet stuff.  At first he didn't tolerate the boots well and we just took him back to the road and put his shoes back on.  After a while, though, he figured out that he could go in the cool stuff if he just wore those boot things and that he could, in fact, walk in them on his own.  I think the snow/puddles/mud outweighed the horribleness of the boots, because he started asking to put them on so he could walk around in the snow.  I guess it worked -- for now.  Take a look.