The poem is made of three small scenes, two from a dream and one from waking life. In the first, an opossum climbs into bed, and the person beside the speaker insists it's tame, brushing off its bites as "love-bites." In the second, a soft white cat arrives, purring, and the same person groans and wants her gone. The reactions are oddly reversed: the wild animal is welcomed, the cuddly one rejected. That's very much how dreams behave, and it also hints at how unpredictable affection can be, since what we want close to us isn't always what we'd expect.
Then the speaker wakes to heavy snow, and the dream's warmth gives way to quiet. The old dog statue in the yard has nearly disappeared under a blanket of white. The speaker doesn't say how they feel, but the mood turns from playful and strange to still, even a little lonely. The statue, a stand-in for a real dog, suggests something lost or buried, which sits gently against the holiday's promise of love.