Pasco pup to star in Puppy Bowl 2019

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (FOX 13) - The Super Bowl is this weekend, which means it’s also time for another annual matchup -- the Puppy Bowl. And once again, the Tampa Bay area has a local star competing: Emmet, a puppy from Planned Pethood of Pasco.

Rescue co-director Amber Burgess explained that Emmet was rescued from a hoarding case, and it didn’t take long for the feisty and rambunctious pup to make an impression.

“We knew we had a Puppy Bowl star real quick,” she offered. “We were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the one.’”

Like his Puppy Bowl co-stars, Emmet has already found his new forever home. But plenty of other dogs haven't, and that’s the point of the whole event, Burgess noted.

“Our rescue, and rescues across the country, struggle trying to get their puppies adopted. It’s hard sometimes to get people to adopt a puppy rather than shop for a purebred puppy or a designer puppy. So I think the Puppy Bowl is important because it shows a number of rescues all across the country and all the different varieties of puppies that are out there and how great an adopted puppy can be.”

You’ll have to watch Animal Planet at 3 p.m. on Sunday to see the outcome of the Puppy Bowl, but Burgess did brag that Emmet ‘played’ well.  “We’re pretty proud of him,” she added.