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Timberline Lodge has a new St. Bernard puppy.

(Courtesy of Timberline Lodge)

Timberline Lodge has a new St. Bernard mascot, continuing a long tradition at the iconic Oregon ski destination. The 11-week-old puppy, named Heidi, joins another St. Bernard at the lodge, 3-year-old Bruno.

St. Bernards are, of course, famous for providing fearless assistance to humans. "Since the early 18th century, monks living in the snowy, dangerous St. Bernard Pass -- a route through the Alps between Italy and Switzerland -- kept the canines to help them on their rescue missions after bad snowstorms," Smithsonian magazine writes. "Over a span of nearly 200 years, about 2,000 people, from lost children to Napoleon's soldiers, were rescued because of the heroic dogs' uncanny sense of direction and resistance to cold."

Heidi won't be needed to perform such feats, though she surely will be capable of it when she grows up. She will set her own hours and duties at the lodge.

Timberline Lodge has had St. Bernards on site pretty much ever since the Mt. Hood winter destination was built in the 1930s. For years dogs lived in the lodge, where they roamed as they pleased, greeting skiers and flopping down in the front of the fire. They became immensely popular; the lodge's website points out they've been featured "in the ski area's brochures, ski pins, and on Timberline Lodge matchbook covers."

For the past 25 years, for their own well-being, the lodge's mascots have lived not at the lodge but with Timberline employees. They typically commute to work with their care-givers.

Timberline Lodge Assistant General Manager Scott Skellenger and his wife Leslie have taken Heidi into their home.

"There is not a plan for formal training for Heidi right now," Leslie Skellenger writes on the Timberline Lodge blog. "We are working with an animal behaviorist that will help to guide us in integrating Heidi into her very demanding job of being a Timberline icon."

-- Douglas Perry