Digging out the car can wait. For dog owners, the first shovel after a blizzard must create the most pressing snow route of all: the poop path.

Canines all over the Delaware Valley - accustomed to squatting on terra firma - become a bit anal retentive upon discovering that the good old fire hydrant or favorite patch of grass has been blanketed by belly-deep snow.

"It's like [us] trying to go to the bathroom on an airplane," said Jennifer McFadden, a vet tech at Wissahickon Creek Veterinary Hospital, in Roxborough.

"It's cold. It's deep...They won't go on that. It's a foreign substance to them," said McFadden. "It's so cold, a lot of them get freaked out when it's touching their under carriage and belly."