Brr!! Woof!! and Penguins

Brr!! Woof!!
Why don’t the little doggies’ paws
freeze when its icy out of doors?
their pads have freeze-resistant fat
but also, and on top of that
little veins are well arranged
by arteries, the heat’s exchanged
so paws don’t freeze or chill his body,
the temperature’s just kept nice and steady,
his body’s warm as he pads on fours,
and digits don’t go numb like ours.

Emperor Penguin Titbits
And penguins have a heat exchanger
in their noses to recapture
heat from breath that they exhale;
and, balanced, tripod-like they stand
in bitter cold of icy land
upon stiff feathers in their tail
which cold of freezing ice don’t feel,
each foot rocked back upon its heel.
Those feet are operated by
remote-control, from muscles high
kept working-warm in all those weathers
tucked under layers of air and feathers