WASHINGTON — As if Super Bowl festivities weren’t exciting enough, animal lovers have their own action-packed Super Sunday tradition.
Animal Planet hosts its 13th annual “Puppy Bowl,” Sunday, kicking off festivities with a “Kitty Halftime Dress Rehearsal” airing at noon, followed by the Puppy Bowl XIII Pregame at 2 p.m. Find the full schedule on the Animal Planet site.
The actual “Puppy Bowl” begins at 3 p.m., when “Team Ruff and “Team Fluff” take the field. In a showdown for the “Lombarki Trophy,” dozens of puppies will scuffle, scoot and scuttle across a model stadium to wrack up points for the win.
The starting lineup includes 39 puppies, including some with special needs. The pups were recruited from 34 different animal shelters across the United States. Every year, the Puppy Bowl gives a platform for adoptable dogs, claiming the event is “the biggest game in adoption,” in one of its videos.
Generally, the pups are adopted before the Puppy Bowl airs, but Dan Schachner, Puppy Bowl referee, explained in his Reddit Ask Me Anything session, “Literally, it takes MINUTES” for the puppies’ adoption. “As soon as people start watching Puppy Bowl, they can go to AnimalPlanet.com and look up the puppy profile, which will connect you with the shelter or rescue center that has them! And you can be sure that within 5 minutes — you have to act quickly.”
The “Puppy Bowl” has become “a pup culture fabric of the Super Bowl,” since its debut in 2005, said Rick Holzman, general manager of Animal Planet in a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It really started to take on a life of its own in 2011. That’s when the game surpassed 9 million viewers.”
Feline fans won’t want to miss this year’s halftime show, when the musical group Chicago Rock Cats with Kitty Gaga will yowl their rendition of “Puparazzi.”
If you’d prefer to watch “cat-letes” in the spotlight, the Hallmark Channel is hosting its fourth annual “Kitten Bowl IV,” airing at noon.
And if you enjoy pets of the silent variety, NatGeoWild channel will start showing “Fish Bowl IV” starting at 1 p.m.
Watch a preview of the games below.