FRANCES

Frances is an 8-year-old beagle. She was a puppy mill breeder dog, then spent time at a research lab, where they bred her & harvested her embryos. The lab adopted her out to a student, who had her for exactly one month before he gave her up to our SPCA. (His reason? She "wants to be with me all the time", was scared of loud noises and wasn't housebroken.) I happened to be behind the desk running some mail through the postage meter when he brought her in. He'd named her Snoop. I took one look at her and I knew she would be mine. Oh yes, she would be mine. She was so loud in the shelter that the woman who worked the reception desk warned me when I announced that I was taking her home with me. Frances had howled so long and loud that the staff had a hard time hearing people on the phone over her noise. The intake desk woman asked me how things went when I returned to work after the weekend I took her home. I told her-- to her amazement-- that we hadn't heard a peep out of her. So we gave Frances her middle name- Serena- in honor of my coworker.

I'll write more about her later, but here's some video of her "nesting."

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=407031226758&ref=mf

(Sorry it's just a link to F.B. but Blogger has now spent over 8 hours trying to upload my video and apparently just weened out so I give up.)

We think she does it because she spent her life prior to us in a cage lined with newspaper. She was probably shredding and piling it to make it more comfortable to lie down in. She kept the mannerism, even when she doesn't have a blanket to arrange. (Please excuse my husband's less than gentlemanly posture in the background.)