Shawnee Tucker got her dog Snow 12 years ago. Snow is an American Eskimo and he was a rescue dog. He's a little small in stature for his breed. "They are usually a little bigger," said Tucker. "We got Snow from the American Eskimo Rescue woman who lives in Burien when he was one year old. My twin sons and I adopted him."

Snow is "an excellent guard dog," said Tucker, "but what is interesting is that I've developed a relationship with a lot of birds in the area. I have a lot of crows that come and a one legged seagull who lands on our deck and I feed her. He's completely fine with these birds. They land near him and there's a complete acceptance of each other. I was surprised by that. I think he senses the relationship."

Tucker said that part of his guard dog personality means he, "has big feelings about men in uniform, particularly mailmen so he barks like crazy. A few of the mailmen have been really wonderful and have tried to befriend him. He's still very protective of me around them. But we met a mail woman walking down the street he was completely fine and had no negative feelings at all. She petted him and it was all good. He sensed the gender."

With a thick coat of beautiful white fur, Snow is, "a major shedder," said Tucker, "so there's a lot of vacuuming and and lot of changing of the vacuum bag."

"He came from what would appear to be a very traumatic beginning. He was found on the side of Highway 18 and then went to an animal shelter in Tacoma and they were going to put him down. But this woman adopts dogs who are going to be put down. She had him for about 5 days. We went out to get a different dog and met him."

Snow eats steamed brown rice and gets some Costco chicken mixed in, eating 2 1/2 chickens a week. His treats come from Pet Elements (south of the Morgan Street Junction). They have bulk biscuits and he now eats "hip action" that contains Glucosamine. Snow favors ropes over toys since as Tucker explained, the breed loves to wrestle.

A pug named Betty Page (yes the 50's pinup) is a "major crush" for Snow. "He is crazy for her and when they walk by and he sees her from the deck he whimpers."

Tucker asked some of her friends (and friends of Snow) to send us some of their thoughts about him. Here's what they had to say;

Jeff Serage writes:
For the last several years I have been Snow's doggie Daddy. Snow is special in that he often is very cute.

When he wants attention and I am preoccupied he sits beside me and touches my leg with his paw. He looks up expectantly and I and others can not resist him.

As he has grown older and needs a special diet we feed Snow chicken and rice - no dog food. Now he won't eat dog food in the house. We feed a family of crows with what used to be his dog food, tossing the dog food in the yard for them. When he's in the yard he noses around in the grass and munches on the dog food he will not eat in the house.

Jeff Serage

Leigh Tunney writes:
Forgive me Snow, but this is not so much of a story as it is a character assassination. Don't get me wrong I love Snow, and as long as I never don a UPS or postal uniform I think Snow is good with me too. We're good that is until Snow's Mom is unable to take him on his appointed rounds and "Auntie Leigh" needs to show up on the other end of the leash.

First of all, don't be fooled by the fluffy white pooch picture accompanying this article. Yes, he looks perfectly affable, but he is a living, breathing demonstration of the aphorism "you can't judge a book by its cover". I don't want to say Snow can be uncooperative, or stubborn, or heaven forbid pig-headed, but it has crossed my mind several thousand times or so during one of our "walks" taking my equally adorable in appearance yet quasi-evil Siamese cat Keiko for a walk on a leash might be less of a challenge. What I WILL say is when you go for a walk with Snow it is true adventure because the only way you get Snow to move is if you head in the direction of his choosing.

And if I might take liberties here and speak for Snow, he might tell you for his part he has exhibited the patience of a saint endeavoring to get me to understand they are HIS walks, not mine. It appears his Mom not only has a soft spot in her heart for stubborn dogs, but stubborn friends as well.

Love, Auntie Leigh

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