Home Alone? Not Heidi

Hi, it’s me, Heidi, not Diane, to tell you some things about my friend Lore who always sometimes comes to stay with me when my peoples are gone.  I will tell you what we do and how much fun we have together because Lore is one of the best peoples ever.

I am writing this instead of Diane because she doesn’t know what happens when she’s not at home with me, so she can’t write about it. Like I couldn’t write about New York, which is where my peoples went last time Lore came to stay with me. I have never been taked to that place New York but someday I will go.

Lore’s whole people name is Lore Schindler. Lore’s name is pronounced like Lori even though she doesn’t have an “i” on the end like my name, Heidi.  So that means I could be “Heide” and still it would sound like Heidi if we used the same kind of spelling rules for peoples and dogs.  I think spelling is very interesting, especially names in Hollywood.  Like personally I would have spelled it Beyond Say but it’s Beyoncé.

Lore was one of Diane’s roommates in college at the University of Michigan. This was way back in history, hundreds of years ago.  It was during the Ice Age, I know that because Diane says there was a lot of ice and snow.  Lore and Diane both moved to Los Angeles separately a few years after college so then they got to be friends again!

Long ago at Prehistoric Michigan Ice College, while Diane was learning how to be a writer, Lore was learning how to be a teacher.  And a really special kind of teacher: somebody who knows how to teach things to peoples who are blind!  I think that is why Lore and I get along so well together, because I am a German shepherd and a lot of us are leader dogs who help people who are blind, too.  I would like that job.

Besides being a teacher, Lore is the technology coordinator for the visually impaired for the Los Angeles Unified School District.  She goes all over Great Big Los Angeles to provide accessible instructional materials for people who have to learn how to read in a different way.  She knows how to do special things with computers that are a lot more important than Facebook or online shopping.  Sometimes she shows me special magic machines that turn words into Braille, a kind of language that you can read with your fingers, or toes if you are a dog.  You don’t even have to see at all, which makes it better than regular writing! You can read more about it than I can explain right here.

Like most shepherds I have strong opinions, and one is the L.A. Unified School District should get more unified and pay all the teachers what they are worth, which is a lot.  What is a better thing to do than teaching?  Also it is very hard. Teachers have to pay attention to their students all the time, not like people with desk jobs who can spend part of their days drinking coffee and watching funny cat videos (although I do like those — not the coffee but the videos).

 When she is at our house Lore gets up early to go to all of these schools but still finds time to walk me and play indoor ball with me.  And our last visit was extra-special because she took me out in her car to one of my favorite places here in Studio City, Marie et Cie.! She likes the Healthy Breakfast Cookies there, and I just like to be anywhere. It took me a lot of years to persuade Lore that it is safe to take me to places; that I will be a good girl and not get lost or misbehave even if there are other dogs at the place.  Maybe now that she knows how good I am, we can go to New York one morning instead of Marie et Cie.

Also another thing that Lore and me are the same about is that I’m a German shepherd and Lore has German people in her family and knows how to speak German, too.  And at night she says to me “gute nacht”  (good night) or “schluf gut” (sleep well).  Then she gives me a kiss.  I always sleep well after that, even though Lore says I hog the bed. 

The weekend I am writing about was the weekend of the Los Angeles Marathon, which is when people run all the way across the city, not to get anywhere — just to do it! So on Saturday night, Lore went home to take care of her cats Stitch and Sophie and my people-sister Sasha and her boyfriend Mikey who live in Brooklyn came all the way across the country to run the marathon!  Imagine, the parents Diane and Alan were in New York and the kids were here, that’s so silly I can’t even think about it.  I slept with Sasha and Mikey that night to make sure they got up in time for the marathon.  They say I hog the bed too. I call it dogging the bed, and I say I am just doing my job. 

So that is Lore!  Also Sasha and Mikey, who had peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast before the run; that was a smart idea.  Thank you to everyone for taking such good care of me. In fact I am not even mad at Diane and Alan for taking the suitcases and leaving me here because we all had so much fun without them.  I know, sometimes it takes a lot of peoples to take care of me. But I’m worth it.