Puppy Bowl and Kitten Bowl
Forget the Super Bowl! Let’s talk about the real sports.
The first Puppy Bowl was held on February 6, 2005. Animal Planet hosts this event, featuring shelter pets, to help raise awareness about pet adoptions. Every puppy that participates in the Puppy Bowl is up for adoption. The Puppy Bowl stadium is located within the Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls, New York. For 19 years, Team Ruff and Team Fluff have been going head to head, each team hoping to be the ones to bring home the Lombarky trophy.
This year’s Puppy Bowl is one you definitely don’t want to miss. According to feldentertainment.com, the 2023 Puppy Bowl is the biggest one yet, featuring 122 puppies that will be representing 67 shelters from 34 states across the country. Of the 122 participating puppies, 11 had special needs, and one of them was from Dominica, West Indies. As stated by nypost.com and wric.com, the Puppy Bowl has a 100% adoption rate. While not all dogs are participating in the game, the Puppy Bowl also has segments called “Adoptables” featuring dogs that are up for adoption from shelters across the country. Since the Puppy Bowl is filmed in advance, most of the dogs will already be adopted by the time it airs, which is why they make sure to feature dogs that aren’t participating, but are still up for adoption. Every dog deserves to find its forever home.
Five of this year’s Puppy Bowl participants were from Virginia. These local pups include Cheeky Tinker, Julius, Kayden, Velma, and Allison. Cheeky Tinker is an Australian Shepherd who was adopted in October by a family in Richmond, VA, and she now goes by the name Pepper. She played for Team Fluff. Julius played for Team Ruff and now goes by the name Mako. This deaf Dalmatian puppy is living his best life with his family in Chesapeake, VA. Kayden is a deaf great pyrenes mix who played for Team Ruff. He now lives in Maryland with his family and goes by the name Bear. Velma is a Great Dane puppy who was renamed Quinnlynn. She was chosen to be a player on Team Fluff in this year’s Puppy Bowl due to her sweet and easygoing personality. Allison had the longest journey to become part of the Puppy Bowl. Among thousands of others, she was rescued from the Envigo dog breeding facility in Cumberland, VA. According to nbcmontana.com, Green Dogs Unleashes, a nonprofit rescue, cared for 11 out of the 4,000 puppies and dogs that were rescued from Envigo. Allison now goes by the name June, and she is currently living with her loving family in Chesapeake, VA. Along with finding her forever home, she played for Team Fluff, which means she also has the Lombarky trophy under her name.
In other sports related news, the Kitten Bowl has been cancelled by Hallmark. Since 2014, the Hallmark Channel has been hosting this event every Super Bowl Sunday, until 2022. According to oregonlive.com, the Hallmark network program stated “While we are not currently developing original animal-centric programming, Hallmark Channel is pleased to support partners like North Shore Animal League America as part of our commitment to social responsibility initiatives.” The Kitten Bowl has helped over 75,000 shelter pets find homes. While this event will no longer be featured, Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl will continue to promote the adoption of all shelter pets from all over the country.
