The Heidi Chronicles, Chapter 18: Animal colorists

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This is Heidi. She was ‘discovered’ this year in the park by a pet talent agency; since then, she has embarked on a one-dog quest to break into the business. This is her Hollywood story as chronicled by Times staff writer Diane Haithman. And this is her “head shot”: That longing look was the result of seeing a biscuit just out of reach.

Let it be stated for the record that, despite her Hollywood aspirations, Heidi has never had work done. When we first adopted her at 14 months, Heidi -- a rescue found in a Texas storm drain -- had just finished nursing her litter of puppies and, frankly, was still looking somewhat saggy in the chest area. Living so close to Beverly Hills, it was hard not to consider a little nip/tuck — and to wonder, since breast reduction surgery usually only involves two, whether Heidi could get a package deal on eight. Fortunately, Heidi soon regained her girlish figure -- and no, I never seriously considered putting her under the knife.

We can all be thankful that cosmetic surgery for dogs remains virtually unheard of, even in show biz. But dogs and other animals often have their appearance altered for the camera. Sometimes, the work is done digitally, in the post-production phase. But there’s still plenty of call for the work of Rose Ordile, one of Hollywood’s premiere animal colorists, through her business “Animals of a Different Color.”

Rose has turned white horses into zebras, white cats into calico and changed the spots on border collies, all with nontoxic color she creates herself. For the zebra stripes photo, she used a temporary paint that washes out. For spots on dogs and cats, or turning a light-colored bulldog red (see photos below), the colors are permanent ones that grow and fade out.

Don’t try this at home with Clairol or Revlon, Rose warns. “Animals ingest their hair when they lick and clean themselves. One may not know what chemicals are in human hair color.”

Rose trained as a veterinary technician, but never believed it was her real calling, so eventually attended grooming school in Las Vegas. “I learned not only how to groom different breeds of dogs, but we colored some of the dogs for casino shows, pinks and blues and stuff,” she says.

In the late 1980s, Rose moved to the Los Angeles area and began training animals, and soon found that Hollywood trainers, who frequently find their animals in shelters, spent much time looking for dogs that matched each other in order to have doubles for the “hero” dog. “I said, why don’t we just get something that is the same size and shape, and I’ll create the rest?” Rose says. “That’s how Animals of a Different Color got started.”

Rose says that recreating subtle color variations is far more difficult than something dramatic like zebra stripes: “That’s like painting on a white canvas.” She adds that sometimes in order to create matching animals, both of the subjects will have markings changed. “I’ll take two and create a third type, doing coloring on both to make it work, she says.

Naturally Heidi and I were most interested in Rose’s work matching German Shepherds, most recently on “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” and “I Am Legend.” And, because at 6, Heidi is, well, not exactly a puppy, we were happy to find that Rose can easily darken a graying muzzle. However, Rose says she would never need to touch up the natural frost on Heidi’s nose, characteristic of the Belgian Malinois breed (best guess on Heidi’s heritage is that she’s a German-Belgian mix).

“It’s sexy,” Rose says.

Photos courtesy of Rose Ordile

Can’t get enough of Heidi? Read earlier installments of her story.