Leesburg Couple Discovers 'Pupularity' After Puppy Bowl Selection
LEESBURG, VA — When Cassandra and Rod Asekhauno made the two-hour drive last fall to adopt a puppy to add to their family’s collection of canines, never in their wildest dreams did they expect that they were bringing home a celebrity.
But when next month’s annual Puppy Bowl rolls around, their Chow Chow mix, Ellie, will take on a starring role. The Puppy Bowl — which airs every year on Animal Planet in conjunction with the Super Bowl — features puppies from around the country that have been either adopted from animal shelters or rescued, and is designed to raise awareness about pet adoption.
The Leesburg couple admit they aren’t the biggest football fans around but have watched the Puppy Bowl in previous years with their sons, Cameron and Baylor, ages 9 and 6. But their interest in the competition has surged this year after learning that Ellie — whom they adopted in September from Green Dogs Unleashed in Troy, which is located just outside of Charlottesville — had been chosen to compete in the annual event.
The first footage of the competition was released by Animal Planet on Thursday. In one video clip, Ellie — referred to as “Chunky Monkey” after the litter of puppies she was part of was named for one of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors — is penalized for excessive slumbering and is told by the referee to save her napping for the locker room.
It hasn't taken long for Ellie's parents to begin basking in the attention that the spotlight has brought to their newest pet addition.
“It’s definitely pretty cool going out walking the dog and casually mentioning to friends that you can see our dog on TV,” Rod told Patch in a telephone interview Friday.
Puppy Bowl representatives had previously expressed interest in Ellie before the Asekhaunos brought their new pet back to Leesburg. Green Dogs Unleashed, which was founded by a college friend of Rod, has previously sent puppies to the Puppy Bowl.
But once Ellie was officially selected for the competition, Cassandra and Rod were given strict instructions to keep the news under wraps, which became increasingly difficult with two young boys in the loop. The starting lineup was finally announced last week, which allowed Ellie’s family to break its silence.
“Now that Ellie has gotten a little bit of press, our boys are very excited to see her in newspapers and online,” Cassandra said Friday.
In addition to the Puppy Bowl competition, Ellie was also selected out of a field of 70 puppies to compete for the “Pupularity” competition, a field of 16 entrants, which compete in a weekly head-to-head showdown. Ellie advanced out of Round 1 and into the second round, which runs through the end of next week.
Cassandra admits that at times during the initial voting, her excitement got the best of her as advancing in the competition comes down to the number of votes earned over a week’s time. But now that Ellie has advanced, she said that she is taking the puppy’s popularity more in stride. The couple said that in addition to tracking the voting themselves, they receive regular updates from friends on where Ellie's chances of moving on lie.
Like everyone else, Cassandra and Rod are relegated to finding out results as they happen, which has made the process even more enjoyable.
Puppy Bowl festivities were taped in New York in October, when the events were filmed adhering to social distancing guidelines because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Because of restrictions of who could come to the city from out of state, access was limited, which led the Asekhaunos to remain in Virginia while their puppy participated in the competition.
But now that footage has started being released, the local couple is excited to see how things play out in the competition while also sharing an important message.
“Obviously, it’s exciting to see our dog on TV and watch everything,” Cassandra said. “But also to bring attention to the mission of adopting dogs (is important). Green Dogs Unleashed has such a powerful mission of bringing in special needs dogs ... and it's a really cool thing that they do (taking in dogs) that a lot of shelters and people think are not worthy."
Even before the Puppy Bowl notoriety came about, people would stop the couple on walks and comment on how cute Ellie is. A few have mentioned she needs her own Instagram feed, which is something that Cassandra jokingly considered on Friday.
While the couple is still adjusting to the puppy's newfound spotlight status, there are still aspects of having a celebrity pup that require some more time.
“It’s interesting to read comments from complete strangers talking about your dog (on the Animal Planet website) and how cute she is," Rod said. "It’s just kind of weird to see people referring to her as Chunky Monkey when we just know her as Ellie."
This article originally appeared on the Leesburg Patch
