Puppy Bowl X To Feature Several Puppy Athletes from Iowa

I've written before that I don't watch the Super Bowl. I know who's playing this year, but I couldn't care less about watching this football game. But I'm a pretty big fan of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl X and definitely plan to watch the excitement. For those who don't know, Puppy Bowl is an annual romp-fest of puppy cuteness. The dogs race around the field and tackle each other and score goals. They have kitty cheerleaders and a Twitter bird and hamsters in a blimp and then there are the tailgating fans. The show gets a little more commercial each year, which gets annoying. Hopefully they will tone down that element a bit this year.

One of my biggest complaints in the past had to do with the lack of poodle athletes. This year's Puppy Bowl X line-up is pretty exciting. It features three poodle/poodle-mix puppies, plus one Pekingese-mix puppy! Check these out:

(Alvin // Coco // Lucy // Jillian)

But there is another reason for folks to check out this year's Puppy Bowl X. Several of the puppy athletes are competing from Iowa! Check this out:

Siberian husky Suri and German shepherd mix Cici, both from Last Hope Animal Rescue, will star on the televised event.  Last Hope Animal Rescue has a network of animal foster families around Cedar Rapids and a shelter in Shellsburg...

“It’s just a really fun, kind of silly event as an alternative to the Super Bowl,” said Last Hope Animal Rescue volunteer Carl Bromberg. “Not everybody is into football.” Bromberg and a few other volunteers traveled with Suri and Cici to New York in October to film the show after Animal Planet liked a photo of Suri the shelter submitted.

Bromberg has since adopted Suri, and Cici has also found a home. But Last Hope Animal Rescue, which often takes animals from shelters that would otherwise euthanize them, has about 80 to 90 dogs and 10 cats waiting for adoption...

The Puppy Bowl will also feature several other Iowa puppies, including Taser, an Italian Greyhound recently adopted by a Des Moines family from Romp Italian Greyhound Rescue in Chicago. AHeinz57 Pet Rescue and Transport of Des Moines also sent five puppies to the Puppy Bowl. They are Cody the spaniel, Opie the schnauzer/terrier mix, Farkle the mastiff, Jack the German shepherd/husky mix and Rudy, a schnauzer/terrier mix.

Puppy Bowl X starts at 2:00 PM tomorrow afternoon on Animal Planet. It generally lasts for two hours and then repeats a few times before the end of the day.