Monday I asked my Facebook followers, “Do you believe dogs experience feelings of love, jealousy, shame, humiliation?“

I had seven responses.  Five said YES!  One said yes to the first three for sure.  The last one said a new book she was reading had her questioning what she knew.

I admit, I had an ulterior motive.

Sunday we posted a photo on Instagram (you can follow us HeartLikeADog) of Delilah wearing her new boots and staring out the window.  I captioned it, “Delilah contemplating if the walk is worth the humiliation of wearing boots.”

You may remember a few weeks back I picked up some of those disposable rubber balloon like ‘boots.’  While I can see their value (you want to protect a paw that has a sore on it) they aren’t the boots for us.  We went through that $20 pack of boots in about 2 weeks.

I needed to find something a little more durable.  My friend Mary had a review on boots, but Mary is in the desert and I wasn’t sure exactly how well those boots would stand up to the snowy, salty, chemically Connecticut winter.

Luckily my friend Tanya who lives in New York put up a photo of her dog wearing boots.  I hopped right on the message chat and got the specifics.

I ordered the boots from Chewy and they came in two days.

How hard can this be? I asked myself.  They’ve been wearing booties for weeks, I thought.

I put one boot on each of the dogs.

Typical Delilah she tried to bite it off.

Sampson just laid there and pouted.

I left the boot on for a few minutes, then put another one and left that one on for a few minutes, then took them off.

Come walk time I put the boots on the dogs and headed out the door.

Sampson the little jackass kept kicking his feet and trying to throw the boot.  Eventually he won and tossed one of the offending boots into the snow.  I picked it up and put it in my pocket.  After that, he was fine.  I guess it’s like when you get the spins from drinking, as long as one foot touches the floor…

Delilah was a totally different story.  She walked sedately beside me.  She did not sniff, she did not look around, she did not potty.  If I had to say what her mood was, I’d say pissed off.

I figured she either hated the boots or the sound of my giggling voice as I watched them goose-stepping up the street.

When we first started with the balloon boots, Delilah had a similar response.  The first day she only walked, the second day she tinkled on the walk and by the third day she was back to her normal, silly self.

I shared this with my mom on Sunday evening as we discussed the dog’s progress with the boots.  “Today she tinkled on our walk, she’ll be back to doing her pooping business tomorrow,” I said confidently.

Monday she filed a formal protest and staged a lie in.   She allowed me to put the boots on her, but she refused to get off the bed and walk.

Sampson and I walked alone.

Monday afternoon we still had lots of snow and no real chemicals on the road, so I let them walk without shoes.  Tuesday I started her with the boots on her back feet only and she did okay.  She walked with a nice loose leash, but she still wouldn’t poop.

Yesterday morning neither one of them wanted to get up for their walk.  Hubby said, “Maybe it’s too cold, why not just skip it?”

Because I got up at 5:45 to walk those stinking dogs and dammit, they’re going to walk! So beginning yesterday morning, they’re both walking with boots only on the back feet.  

So given all of that, I’ll ask you.  Do you think dogs have feelings?