Seeing Double: Heidi & Heidi

Now that , Heidi the German shepherd is back to doing what she does best: playing with her best friend, Heidi the German shepherd. Yes, there are two of them. And when they're together, that's a lot of dog.

Certainly there are plenty of dogs named Heidi, particularly of the German or Swiss shepherd persuasion.  Our Heidi came with the name, bestowed upon her by , the “pet psychic” who rescued our girl once upon a time in Houston, TX. When we adopted Heidi, we were determined to change her name to something more hip, more cool: Maybe Kili, because my husband has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, or…well, we're not as hip or imaginative as we thought we were, but tried a bunch of stuff. But it soon became clear that, no matter how corny or overused, our dog was just Heidi, with a capital yodel. She wagged her tail at the name, came when we called her, and that’s all that mattered. 

  So what if the moniker hearkened back to Johanna Spyri’s 1880 novel, set in the Swiss Alps (we deny the existence of the Shirley Temple movie). After all, Heidi’s mom (that would be me) spent a great deal of time as a little girl in Detroit trying to prepare toasted cheese sandwiches on thick sliced bread just like the ones Heidi made for her grumpy grandfather in the book.  And speaking of Alps, I love The Sound of Music movie too, even though it still scares the pants off me when that big nun sings “Climb Every Mountain.”

Still, it was a bit of a surprise when Alan’s longtime friend and gym buddy, Dave Fulton and his wife Beth of Valley Village, adopted their Heidi.  Heidi Two hails from Tehachapi, CA, where she was training for a job with the Santa Fe Railroad as a bomb-sniffing dog.  She failed her “box test” – that is, didn’t detect the explosives. Now she devotes her boundless energy to guarding Beth from everything.

Even more surprising – the dogs loved each other.  Both are “people” dogs, more likely to bond with humans than other canines. But as soon as they met they were pouncing like kittens and knocking each other over (see the video).  Being the senior dog at nearly 10, our Heidi, a.k.a. The Boo, usually has the upper hand, giving Heidi Two, who is almost 3, a growl and a whack when the older dog gets tired of romping.  In order to start the action, Heidi Two tends to nip ankles.  Heidi Boo goes straight for the nose. Nobody gets hurt, but both dogs are soggy with drool from mock-bites before the game is over.

Heidi Boo goes to the gym twice a week with Alan and Dave; Heidi Two, much too bouncy to handle this social situation, stays home and waits for the two doggy Dads to bring Heidi Boo to Dave’s house for their regular morning play date after the gym. When we had a cat, I used to think play dates for dogs were weird, but now this seems perfectly normal.

Heidi Two is larger and darker in color than Heidi Boo, but not everyone is clear on the difference. Heidi Boo goes to for day care and grooming.  Heidi Two gets groomed there, too.  One day, Dave showed up to pick up Heidi Two after grooming.  Instead, the attendant brought out a smiling Heidi Boo, who was there for day care, and probably dirty – but since she knows Dave, she was more than ready to go home with him (althought this one would go home with Ted Bundy if he had liver treats).  After all, she’s Heidi, too.

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