Local dogs went from Ohio puppy mill to ‘Puppy Bowl XX’
The Steelers may have fallen short in their quest for a seventh Super Bowl victory, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any Western Pennsylvania-based athletes playing their tails off on Sunday.
Two local rescue dogs are set to make appearances in “Puppy Bowl XX,” the 20th edition of the annual football-themed telecast showcasing scores of adoptable pups from around the country. “Puppy Bowl XX” will precede Super Bowl LVIII by a few hours when it airs Sunday at 2 p.m. on Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, discovery+ and Max.
Keep an eye out for Gertie and Good Girl, two approximately 7month-old bichon-poodle mixes who made it to “Puppy Bowl XX” courtesy of the local nonprofit Paws Across Pittsburgh. They came to the foster-based animal rescue from a Sugarcreek, Ohio, puppy mill when they were about 8 weeks old and have since become some of the 5,000-plus dogs and cats Paws Across Pittsburgh has rehabilitated and rehomed.
“Everyone in the Pittsburgh area is pretty proud,” said Vicki Thomas, a Paws Across Pittsburgh board member and vetting coordinator. “Including us!”
Fun fact: Gertie arrived at Paws Across Pittsburgh as Ginger before getting a name change post-adoption. Good Girl began her life as Jade, got renamed Margo by her new owners and was dubbed “Good Girl” for the “Puppy Bowl.” Their new fur parents had no qualms about letting the Paws Across Pittsburgh team take them to Glen Falls, N.Y., last fall to participate in “Puppy Bowl XX.”
Jackie Armour, Paws Across Pittsburgh’s founder and president, described Gertie and Good Girl as “very social, friendly, outgoing dogs.” Though Armour suspects they share a father, all she knows for sure is that Gertie’s 5year-old mother, a red miniature poodle named Lucci, was also rescued from that same Ohio puppy mill.
Their shared history and tight bond has led many to regard them as siblings, including the “Puppy Bowl.”
“Don’t let the innocent faces on these Pittsburgh sisters fool you,” “Puppy Bowl” referee Dan Schachner said in a statement to the PostGazette. “They could give the Steelers a run for their money.”
Gertie and Good Girl were both
born with “medical imperfections,” according to Armour. Puppy mills are for-profit enterprises designed to breed large quantities of marketable dogs, so it’s possible those breeders could have deemed them worthless due to those perceived defects.
Mill owners contacted Paws Across Pittsburgh, which drove to Sugarcreek and brought the two future “Puppy Bowl” competitors back to the Pittsburgh area. As they’ve been doing for most of the last eight years, Paws Across Pittsburgh’s team of volunteers immediately started preparing Gertie and Good Girl for adoption by placing them with fosters and ensuring that they were both fixed, microchipped and fully vaccinated.
Thomas remembered how “cold, scared, nervous [and] dirty” those two pups were at the time of their rescue. She said that Gertie and Good Girl quickly “came out of their shell” after being nursed back to health and had been socialized well enough to remain generally well-behaved (if “a little shocked”) during their “Puppy Bowl” taping day.
“It was me going all the way to get them, or they would’ve faced certain death,” Thomas explained.
“It’s crazy that they ended up on national TV!”
The dynamic duo ended up on separate “Puppy Bowl” squads, with Gertie playing for Team Ruff and Good Girl donning Team Fluff colors. They still “palled around together there” and seemed less interested in scoring touchdowns by dragging toys into either end zone and more intent on begging for attention from any human within pettingdistance, according to Armour.
“They’re very social, great temperaments, loved everyone who wanted to come over and pet them,” she said. “Overall, they did really great.”
In Thomas’ estimation, Good Girl was a bit more timid than Gertie,
who emerged as “more of a player.” Good Girl, however, was the sister who kept crawling out of her pen on filming day.
Thomas made a point to shout out Schachner, who clearly “really loves the dogs” and was a welcoming presence for both puppies and their chaperones.
“It was kind of cool seeing how it all transpired in front of your face,” she said. “All the photos shoots and everything you did and all the cameras ... I can’t wait to see it all pieced together. It’s going to be fun!”
Gertie and Good Girl have already become local celebrities. They’re set to appear Thursday on “Pittsburgh Today Live,” and
Paws Across Pittsburgh has a “Puppy Bowl XX/Basket Pawty” planned for Feb. 18 at the Brackenridge American Legion that will include a meet-and-greet with these little stars.
Though Gertie and Good Girl have already been adopted, Armour wanted to remind everyone that there’s “a huge need” in this region for folks willing to serve as fosters and forever homes. She said that Paws Across Pittsburgh regularly gets more than 100 requests a week from shelters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky that are dangerously close to being overrun by stray animals.
Armour knows that Paws Across Pittsburgh doesn’t have the
manpower to help them all, but she’s always looking for more fosters and Paws Across Pittsburgh volunteers to save as many dogs and cats as she can. Gertie and Good Girl’s “Puppy Bowl” berth has already shined a spotlight on Paws Across Pittsburgh, and she and Thomas hope those two can inspire more Western Pennsylvanians to support their work.
“It brings attention the rescue,” Armour said. “A lot of the time, that will bring donations, fosters and volunteers to the rescues. It’ll help in a lot of different ways.”