M A K I N G O F T H E P U P P Y B O W L

Puppies tumble, kittens dance, America awwwwwws. If the Puppy Bowl is not your favourite Super Bowl tradition yet, do you even have a heart?

What once was a semi-laughable idea meant to entertain the children and bored chip- munchers of game- day parties is now America’s most adorable pastime. And this year, you can watch it six times in a row: Puppy Bowl XII will air on Animal Planet at 3 p. m. ET, then repeat every other hour for 12 hours straight.

You, person with heart, know the basics of the Puppy Bowl: Animal Planet gathers dogs i n need of adoption f rom all around the country, divides them i nto “Team Ruff ” and “Team Fluff,” then plops them onto an AstroTurf f i eld. Like their human counterparts, the puppies climb all over each other for a few hours while trying to drag their chew toys i nto the end zones. The halftime show i s performed by kittens. And we’re told this year, there will be some sort of clothing malfunction with a tortoise.

What more could you want? We’ll tell you: a skunk as assistant referee and silkie chickens as cheerleaders. If you don’t know what a silkie chicken is, Google them immediately.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the Puppy Bowl, though, is what viewers don’t see. The two- hour special is actually a compilation of three eight- hour days of filming: one for the kittens and chickens, and two for the dogs. All those animals, plus their human handlers and a 60- person crew, are crammed in a studio in New York City. The “field” itself is a Plexiglas box so small you could fit 24 of them into an NFL end zone.