Best Friends

When we first got Bea, Heidi seemed almost afraid of her. Bea would try jumping up on her and sniffing her, and Heidi would freeze. Then the hair would start standing up on her back like a mohawk. Then she would cautiously walk away...

Of course it didn't help that Bea, fresh from her mother's care, kept trying to get at Heidi's nipples.

Now that Bea has been successfully weaned, the two of them are goofy mad dogs tumbling all over each other and all over us, all the time. Bea is faster and has sharper teeth (favouring Heidi's tail and back legs), while Heidi seems to prefer body-checking and head butting. It usually ends up in a tie, so we weren't able to get a profitable betting business off the ground.

Heidi has also learned (after several time-outs) that there is plenty of food to go around, so no need to be so protective of hers. We were diligent parents in communicating that to her, to the point where she now steps away if Beatrice tries approaching her bowl instead of shoving her face deep into it and growling. Our mistake was in not realizing what an insatiable appetite Beatrice has. Bea would happily polish off Heidi's bowl before moving over to her own until we caught on and started feeding Heidi on the couch, the one place where Bea can't yet go. Heidi seems happy with that arrangement.

It's very cute though: the dogs both respond with boundless joy when they hear the words "Din-Din for the babies?"

As a defining characteristic I would say that our little Bea is turning into quite the little piggy. More on that to come...