Heidi's Story

By Rich

It started out innocently enough. I was picking up my glasses at the opticians one Saturday in January and saw a really cool dog,  a Shiba Inu, that a customer brought into the store.  Shibas are small, intelligent and  good looking.. a perfect match for the Fassler family. When I returned to the car, I told Eileen about my encounter and that was all she needed.  Many books and countless hours later (reading and surfing the internet), Eileen was educated and ready to begin the search to find the "perfect" dog. It turned out that Shibas were also strong-willed, hard to train, needed lots of activity and loved to chase cats. Except for that last part about cats, it sounded like Ryan when he was a kid. OK, so a Shiba Inu wasn't the best choice. But we still thought maybe we could find a Shiba mix or some other small/medium sized dog that would be able to blend into the family.

We had to postpone the search until we returned from our Japan adventure in late April, but once we got back, Eileen kicked into "gotta find the doggie now " mode and each weekend, we visited rescue groups, pet stores, and shelters to find and adopt the perfect playmate for Fiona (who of course never really told us she wanted a playmate).

After weeks of searching, one thing was clear -  Pit Bull males really get around .We decided that we didn't want to take a chance with a canine Jekell and Hyde story.... "nice doggie... hey, where'd  my fingers go"? . Week after week, no luck. It was getting pretty frustrating and seemed like it just wasn't going to happen until Eileen asked if I was willing to drive to the San Martin shelter, about 20 miles away, near Gilroy. With gas at $3.60 a gallon, I really thought about it, but finally caved in.

                                                                Yo, Dawg.. so this is the Fassler life.. it's like doggie heaven..

So, we schlepped out to the San Martin shelter on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and encountered the usual smelly, barking, tail wagging inmates, all looking to break out of the doggy joint. Lots of Pit Bulls  and some older small dogs. And then... there was Clara, a German Shepherd mix with floppy ears, who looked up at Eileen and silently licked her hand. What a move! This dog was definitely intelligent  and good looking, but only if you lived among the Watusi tribe in Africa, would you consider it small. Plus (what a relief), it had an adoption application form already filled out with its paperwork. So, we left empty-handed from yet another shelter.

But, Eileen couldn't forget Clara's quiet hello, and thought, maybe a German Shepherd wasn't such a big dog after all, and  maybe the adoption application form was put there by mistake. She called the shelter and was told that Clara was still available. So, the next day, we happily drove down to beautiful San Martin once more, played with her, saw that she really wasn't bothered by the cats in the cat adoption room and adopted the perfect addition to our family. Since she was of German heritage, we decided Heidi was a better name than Clara.

 

All was well in the world....we now had our dog!

 

Right....


This will clinch the deal. I call it the "rub my belly" move. It's irresistible.

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