When my twin brother and I had our birthday, we never would have guessed our present. A puppy! I could barely believe my eyes! We named her Heidi for her noble posture when she stood. Sadly, she ended up quickly growing attached to my brother and not me. Why doesn’t she like me? I thought enviously. So when my dad saw how disappointed I was and how I was taking care of Hiedi, he got an idea: Let’s get another puppy!

The nine-week old puppy was the smallest creature I had ever seen! She had big, round, chocolatey eyes that twinkled in the light. She had little floppy ears and big clumsy paws. Her fur was a dark grey with white paws and a warm grey chest. I picked the name Mitzi for her disobedient and mischievous attitude.

When we first brought Mitzi home, she was very timid and would whimper a lot. At first, she slept in a crate next to a night light, but the poor little pup was frightened and would cry or howl. The sound was similar to a small child crying for his mother after a bad dream. After about twenty minutes, I gave up trying to fall asleep and set Mitzi down on my bed next to me. I comforted and calmed her down by whispering gently. I soon heard very quiet and soft snoring coming from her. Carefully, I turned on my light and started to read a book, knowing Mitzi would need to be comforted again soon. Heidi and Mitzi were introduced to each other soon after.

Our other dog, Heidi, loves to act like a big sister to Mitzi. They often wrestle and love to play, and it’s quite funny to watch. Oddly, Mitzi often overtakes Heidi or at least outsmarts her! Sometimes, when Heidi is on a leash, Mitzi will run around and get Heidi stuck on a chair or a bush. I laugh so hard when Heidi gets stuck because she looks up at me with sad eyes and looks really guilty. When they come inside, they will often “fight” and then snuggle together right after. Sometimes you can’t even tell if they love or hate each other. They also tend to get into quite a bit of mischief, picking flowers from our yard including tulips and daffodils. They also eat or destroy any papers they can find, they have even tried to eat my homework (as cliche as that sounds).

Mitzi is now only a bit smaller than Heidi, but as always, she has kept her big puppy eyes and big clumsy paws. They still love to play and chase each other around, although now we have to keep them both on a leash and separated when they are outside without supervision so they don’t try to get at each other and get tangled up or get outside our yard. But when they are off the leash, they chase and chase each other until they are both lying in the grass exhausted. They still love to wrestle, especially inside when chasing a tennis ball. It is quite funny when they take a nap during the day, because Heidi sleeps in a bed that is too small for her, but Mitzi sleeps in one that is too large for her. They have also figured out a way to get out of our backyard by digging in a hole, which is quite annoying. Once we had to chase Heidi all throughout the neighborhood to try and catch her. We eventually cornered her and were able to catch her, but only after we were all exhausted!

Although we love our dogs, they tend to be quite a lot of work. They are very curious and mischievous. Keeping them from chewing on things and preventing escape attempts from our yard is a very difficult task. Though they still play often to get their energy out, sometimes it isn’t enough and they can easily become irritated or far too excited. Although a dog can seem mellow when you first get them, they can become quite a piece of work. Especially with our two puppies!