Three St. Louis puppies are featured in this year’s Puppy Bowl, the biggest rendition of the popular event to date.
Puppy Bowl XXI will be broadcast at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time Sunday, Feb. 9, in conjunction with the Super Bowl LIX later that evening between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
You can watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Max and more.
This year’s Puppy Bowl will feature 142 puppies from 80 shelters and rescues in 40 states and two countries, according to the Discovery Channel website. The puppies will compete for Team Fluff and Team Ruff, with the goal of winning the “Lombarky” trophy by dragging toys across the End Zone.
Beagle/border collie mix Astro, cocker spaniel Charlotte and poodle/great Pyrenees mix Mardipaw from the Humane Society of Missouri are competing in this year’s Puppy Bowl. Charlotte and Mardipaw will represent Team Fluff, while Astro is on Team Ruff.
The Puppy Bowl is filmed months in advance of airing, and this year’s event was filmed in New York. Since filming, all three puppies from the HSMO have been adopted.
Astro and Mardipaw had homes lined up before they traveled to compete, although adoptions couldn’t be made legally official until they returned from the trip, while Charlotte was adopted by a New York resident at filming.
Charlotte was born July 8, 2024, and came to HSMO as part of a transport from the National Mill Dog Rescue. She lives in Congers, N.Y., and her mom Pam said in a statement HSMO shared with the News-Democrat that Charlotte has two fur brothers named Graham and Reggie.
“She prefers being carried upstairs every night to bed in her crate and likes to high-five (although we didn’t teach her this!),” Charlotte’s owner said. “She is very friendly and was very excited to get another Lambchop from Santa (her favorite toy to snuggle with). She has all the curiosity that comes with a puppy and we love her!”
Mardipaw was born June 16, 2024, and was left along with her five siblings and mom in an overnight drop-box kennel outside the humane society when she was estimated to be around 4 weeks old.
“Mardipaw doesn’t have fur siblings, but she enjoys playing with her human sister. Her favorite toy is a soccer ball. When she gets the chance, Mardipaw loves to play with other pups and is very excited to greet them!,” Mardipaw’s owner said in the statement.
Astro was born July 9, 2024. He was surrendered by his previous owner to HSMO at just a few weeks old, along with his siblings and mother.
“Astro lives with two border collies, two goats and a chinchilla. He loves them all, but is especially buddies with Jet, our 3-year-old Border Collie. They love to roughhouse then snuggle. We joke that Jet was his Puppy Bowl coach that taught him all his moves! He loves everyone he has ever met and especially loves car rides. His favorite thing to do this fall was to go watch high school and college cross country meets with me. He loved all the fans who stopped to say hi. Lastly, his true passion is food - especially peanut butter! He will do literally anything for peanut butter!,” Astro’s owner Katie said.
Since the puppies were too big to fly under a seat on a plane, HSMO marketing communications manager Robyn Dexter said shelter staff drove them from St. Louis to New York over two days.
Dexter traveled with the group and told the BND in a recent interview that while the journey might have been long for the 3- to 4-month old puppies, they enjoyed participating.
“It’s really exciting, we’re looking forward to seeing them in the big game this Sunday and we get to do some local media with them this week so I can’t wait to see how big they are now,” Dexter said.
While these three HSMO pups have found their homes, plenty of others are still awaiting adoption.
“There’s always animals in need of forever homes, no matter what people are looking for we probably have something that will fit that,” Dexter said.
As of Feb. 4, HSMO has dogs listed for adoption from 10 weeks old to 9 years old, including pit bull terriers, redbone coonhounds, a great Pyrenees and more. The adoption fees can vary based on age and breed.
“If they see a dog they want to meet, we encourage them to come into the shelter and do a meet-and-greet and fill out some paperwork and if everything goes smoothly and it seems like it’s going to be a good fit, they can take them home that day,” Dexter said.
Along with the St. Louis dogs, puppies from Five Acres Animal Shelter in St. Charles, Mo., and One Tail at a Time in Chicago also competed in the Puppy Bowl.
For those looking to celebrate the Puppy Bowl locally, St. Louis’ dog park bar, Bar K, will host a puppy bowl event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8. Some of the matches will feature adoptable puppies from local rescues, and others will offer open registration to any puppies ages 3 to 6 months who are up-to-date on vaccinations.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Meredith Howard is a reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
