Heidi turns 11!
Today, Heidi has her 11th birthday. This is quite an achievement for a Bernese Mountain Dog. Their average lifespan is around 8-1/2 to 9 years of age.
We’re travelling on her birthday and she is with our house/pet sitter. But, we’ll have an appropriate celebration in a couple of days when we get back.
We got Heidi from a breeder in Switzerland in 1993 while we were living in France. She was a cute puppy, but like a lot of girl puppies, she was very mischievous and taught Indiana all kinds of bad habits. She has always been the rabble-rouser in the family, barking a lot and spurring the other dogs on to mischief. But, she became one of the best obedience trained dogs in the house and did animal-assisted-therapy with children for 3 years. She finally grew tired of that. Other than a bad case of hip dysplasia—which she has compensated for by building really strong hip muscles—she has never been sick and looks like she’ll be going strong for a while yet.
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