May 2008   Shenanigans
First you see her, then she’s off. That’s par for the course with 8-year-old Shenanigans, an active Papillon/Border Collie/Beagle mix. Three years ago she had the good fortune to attract the attention of Susan and Fran Mardula, volunteers at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, who ended up adopting her. The name she arrived with was “Marie,” but after she turned the Mardula home upside down with her antics, Susan and Fran decided on a name more suited to her mischievous personality.

A case in point: one evening when her owners were out, Shenanigans opened the kitchen pantry door, jumped 4 feet to the second shelf and attacked a box of 12 individually-wrapped oatmeal cookies. When the Mardulas returned, they found one wrapper, zero cookies...and feared the worst. But a trip to the emergency vet was unnecessary, for they found the uneaten cookies hidden on all four levels of their home. Shenanigans had simply “squirreled away” her goodies for a rainy day.

During another unchaperoned evening, Shenanigans detected hard candy and cough drops in Fran’s briefcase. She opened the bedroom closet door, dragged his briefcase out, unzipped the zipper, pulled out his business papers and devoured all the sweets. Yum!

But seriously—how can we blame little Shenanigans for being true to her various breeds? She inherited the Border Collie agility and intelligence, the Beagle nose and the Papillon cuteness (which gets her out of trouble every time). Lucky for her, she’s as affectionate as she is conniving.

Shenanigans shares her home with her 4 adopted brothers: 3 dogs—10 year old Simon Peter, 13-year old Senator and 1-year old Shortcut—and an 8-year old tabby cat named Spamoni. Stay tuned for more about Shortcut, our June Dog of the Month.

Our favorite image of Shenanigans appears here in Gallery 3.

Click here to read about a previous Dog of the Month winner.