Super Bowl Sunday means there’s only one thing on TV worth watching – Animal Planet’s 11th annual Puppy Bowl, in which Team Ruff and Team Fluff romp around a tiny football stadium equipped with squeaky toys, referees and water bowl cams. Sometimes they play, sometimes they tackle one another, sometimes they fall asleep. It’s mesmerizing.
Now we have even more reason to tune in because 16 of the puppies featured in this year’s lineup are locals. Florida Little Dog Rescue, based in St. Cloud, has managed to get 12 puppies into the starting lineup for Puppy Bowl and four backups. This is the largest number of pups selected from a single rescue in all of Puppy Bowl history. Go home team!
To celebrate, Florida Little Dog Rescue is holding a Puppy Bowl Tailgating event on SuperBowl Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. at the Hammered Lamb, and some of the Puppy Bowl stars will be on hand to sign “pawtographs.”
All of the puppy players were rescued from local animal shelters or neglect cases. Most of the Florida Little Dog Rescue Puppy Bowl players have already been adopted, but there are still two cuties – Starlight and Olaf – looking for homes. If you want to adopt your own little tiny linebacker, you can contact Florida Little Dog Rescue for more information.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2015.