Woof! Once again it’s snowing in Stars Hollow, not as much as last week but enough that we need to put on the snow boots and get out the shovels and ice melt. So, while the snow is falling, we can all sit around the TV with hot chocolate and watch the yearly spectacle of cuteness – Puppy Bowl XVII.
If the snacks can’t get you through Super Bowl Sunday, maybe 70 puppies playing football can.
It’s the Puppy Bowl time.And even though so many beloved events have been canceled in the past year, Puppy Bowl XVII is very much on.With 70 puppies from 22 different shelters, Sunday’s event will pit Team Ruff against Team Fluff in a canine football match for a common goal: To be adopted.Here’s what you need to know.Don’t be phased by the roman numerals. This is Puppy Bowl no. 17, the latest in a tradition that began in 2005.Pups are split up into two teams and placed in a canine-sized football stadium to compete for “touchdowns,” but there’s also a national anthem performance, a halftime show, play-by-play commentary and a “rufferee.”The winning team captain gets a “Chewy Lombarky Trophy,” but really, all the dogs win.For the past 16 events, 100% of the puppies and kittens featured were adopted. (Yes, there are kittens — more on that later.)The Puppy Bowl is all about celebrating adoptable pups and the shelters and staff who help them.This year’s Puppy Bowl features dogs from nine Northeastern states.You’ll meet Marshall, a deaf Boston Terrier mix training to be a therapy dog for Covid-19 nurses.You’ll learn about Mona, a 10-year-old Toy Poodle mix from Los Angeles who takes reiki healing sessions.You’ll see five special needs players and four hearing impaired pups, including Jett, a double front amputee Labrador mix who loves to scamper in the countryside.And all of these players will be cheered for on the sidelines for the very first time by puppy cheerleaders, Animal Planet said in a statement.You can meet the players here.
Some people are under the impression I don’t like dogs which is not at all true. Most of them like me too though there is this one, Luna, that my activist brother occasionally has to look after that barks every time she sees me.
She has abandonment issues due to mistreatment and my lifestyle, which consists mostly of cursing at the computer and wandering to the refrigerator at odd intervals for food, means I’m only available intermittently for emotional bonding and that’s what dogs want, all the time.
Take your neediest girlfriend ever, triple it, and that’s what Dogs are like. Yeah they’re also a pain in the ass in other ways, you have to walk them for one, but that excited door bouncing is not just, “I need to pee.” Dogs genuinely like their humans and miss you when you’re away.
And if that’s the kind of experience you’re looking for (along with the knowledge they’ll be dead in 15 years despite your best efforts and all your money) then you should have one. Emily has deeply regretted it ever since her last one died, yet I can’t persuade her to just get another one. Our pets tend to find us, we don’t go looking for them.
We also go for hyper imaginative names like “Terry” for a Terrier and “Dally” for a Dalmatian. Yep, we have a lot of fun in Stars Hollow but to make up for it the Winters are long, dark, and cold. Now walk that damn dog before they pee on the carpet.
In truth we set up a dog run which is what you do when you don’t want to strap a Taser to your dog’s neck and opt for the more civilized solution of wrapping them in chains. It’s still there, vacant, and I can never mow that part of the lawn without checking my shoes.
I could certainly make Luna love me, or at least obey me, because I know all the Caesar Milan tricks, but the question is how committed am I to that relationship? She’s not my dog, or even my brother’s, simply a stranger who sleeps over every so often.
Perhaps she senses that and it’s the source of her discontent.
The other things you should know about dogs is they like to play, practically all the time unless they’re sleeping in which case they make good footrests and bed warmers if you can stand the hair and dander. They can do amusing stuff like chase non-existent Tennis Balls but I think that a cruel trick. You can dress them in costumes and they don’t seem to mind, unlike Cats where there is always this seething resentment. Of course Cats pretty much resent everything (not unlike a teenager) which is why I like them. You don’t have to walk them either which is bonus.
Alas I am completely pet free at the moment but when I consider my sketchy attention to details perhaps it is for the best.
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