Snow Pros and Cons

I absolutely love the snow. I love rubbing my face in it, prancing in it like leaping gazelles, eating it and running wild in it. However, the dark side is the aftermath of the snowfall, also known as the salt war against snow and ice. As I have been getting older, the salt has begun to dry out and cause my paws pain very easily such that I cannot walk in it. I have to find patches of snow free ice to rest my paws in. This makes the walk more of a ride in my human friends' arms as I cannot walk myself anymore. I understand that the salt that people use to help them reduce the amount of snow and the slippery ice (and liability) is not good for the overall environment either. Maybe some day snow and ice removal and reduction will be less toxic for all of us. In the meantime, I will have to wear these booties and the humans walking me will have to endure all the giggling and commentary of "Oh my gosh he has booties on"! "It's so cute"! These boots suck as I have a hard time getting my grounding, literally. Plus, they don't have any tread (though more than the earlier ones) so lifting my leg to mark a fire hydrant on ice, causes for some balancing issues on 3 legs with one leg high in the air. You can imagine. Try it yourself some time and you'll understand. Here's a start for some environmentally friendly alternatives to salt: http://www.wkbw.com/archives.aspx?PageID=LN&StoryID=17690 and this: http://enn.com/today.html?id=6952