57 Puppies, 38 Rescues, One Hamster-Powered Scoreboard

Every February, roughly a hundred million people organize their Sunday around a football game, and a smaller, happier number of them organize the afternoon before it around puppies falling over on a carpet field. Puppy Bowl XVIII aired February 13, 2022 on Animal Planet, three hours ahead of the actual Super Bowl, with a scoreboard powered by a hamster on a wheel.

Team Fluff won it 73-69, on a touchdown scored as time expired.

That is the sports part, and it is the least interesting part. The lineup card is where the story is. Fifty-seven starting puppies came to that field, and they came from thirty-eight different rescue organizations, from a county animal-services department in Miami-Dade to a Basset Hound-specific rescue spanning three states to a Puerto Rican rescue operation that flew its dogs to the mainland. For most of those groups, three hours of national airtime is worth more than any fundraiser they will run all year.

So here is the game, read from the roster out.

The dog who won MVP was a service dog in training

Most Valuable Puppy went to Kirby, a Labrador Retriever on Team Fluff, who came to the field from America’s VetDogs, the organization that trains and places service dogs with veterans and first responders at no cost to the recipient.

Think about what that means as a piece of casting. The best player in a puppy football game was a dog already on a career path, tumbling around on national television in the window before the real work starts. It is a good joke and a better advertisement, and it is the kind of thing the Puppy Bowl does better than any adoption campaign ever written.

The rescues that showed up, and what they brought

The single most useful thing you can do with a Puppy Bowl roster is stop reading it as a list of puppies and start reading it as a list of organizations. These are the groups that fostered, vetted, vaccinated, and shipped the players. Several sent more than one.

Sent four starters each

• Green Dogs Unleashed — Bunny, Glaze, Pongo, Ridley
• The Sato Project — Irwin, Mario, Wasabi, Wes
• Rescue City — Mallorie, Ziggy, Banjo, Lucy

Sent three

• Florida Little Dog Rescue — Baxter, Nugget, Squeak

Sent two each

• Providence Animal Center — Blondie, Missy
• Virginia Beach SPCA — Heidi, Sammie
• Shaggy Dog Rescue — Raspberry, Ellington
• Compassion Kind — Billie, Maisie
• Orange Twins Rescue — Bimini, Tayce
• Miami-Dade County Animal Services — Conchita, Surf
• Matchdog Rescue — Ocean, Scotty

Sent one

Bosley’s Place (Benny), Ninna’s Road to Rescue (Birch), Paws Crossed (Chorizo), Angel City Pit Bulls (Cooper Pupp), Tri-State Basset Hound Rescue (Dinozzo), Helen Woodward Animal Center (Firework), Brandywine Valley SPCA (Forrest), Lifeline Puppy Rescue (Kali), America’s VetDogs (Kirby), Shih Tzu & Furbabies Rescue (Mr. Tinkles), Rutland County Humane Society (Pudding), Love My Pitties Rescue (Rob Gronchowski), ROAR Animal Rescue (Sky), Operation Paws for Home (Aspen), Last Chance Animal Rescue (Biff), Save An Angel (Cannon), The Anti-Cruelty Society (Emmylou), Maui Humane Society (Hoku), Muddy Paws Rescue (Jackson), Pack Leaders Rescue of CT (Lulu), Danbury Animal Welfare Society (Luna), East Greenwich Animal Protection League (Maribel), Harley’s Haven Dog Rescue (Moby), Charlie’s Crusaders Pet Rescue (Noir), Big Fluffy Dog Rescue (Odin), Center for Animal Health and Welfare (Pops), Wagmor Pets (Snowball).

Look at the geography in that list. Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Vermont, Louisiana, Illinois, Southern California. The Puppy Bowl is one of very few national platforms where a small foster-based group with no marketing budget and a county shelter with a six-figure intake stand on exactly the same field.

The starting lineups

Team Fluff

Team Ruff

Why the silly version works

There is a version of this event that is pure content: cute animals, a fake scoreboard, a hamster. And there is a version that is one of the most effective adoption pitches on American television, precisely because it refuses to be a sad one.

Every puppy who has appeared on a Puppy Bowl has been adopted. Not because the show finds special dogs, but because it puts ordinary shelter puppies in front of an audience that would never sit through an appeal. No sad piano. No shelter footage. Just thirty-eight rescue groups getting to say their names out loud on a Sunday in February, in front of millions of people who had come for the football.

Team Fluff took the trophy. Everybody in the lineup card got a home.

References

• Discovery. “Puppy Bowl XVIII Post Game Recap.” discovery.com
• CNN. “Puppy Bowl 2022: Team Fluff wins against Team Ruff.” February 13, 2022. cnn.com
• America’s VetDogs. “About Us.” vetdogs.org