Category: News

R.I.P. Dipper, Jon Stewart’s Beloved 3-Legged Pit Bull

Back in 2015, I wrote about why “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart is so doggone awesome. The No. 1 reason? He was the dog dad of rescued pets, including a 3-legged Pit Bull named Dipper.

The good news is that after a long absence, Stewart has returned to host “The Daily Show” on Mondays. The sad news is that Dipper won’t be around to watch his dog dad on TV.

Last night, Stewart tearfully announced that 14ish-year-old Dipper crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Feb. 26. “He was ready,” Stewart said, “…but I wasn’t.”

The Stewart family adopted Dipper from Animal Haven, a New York City animal shelter, about 13 years ago. They were there to sell cupcakes to raise money for the shelter. (Yet another reason why Stewart is awesome!) 

To help boost sales, the shelter staff brought out a young Pit Bull who’d lost his back right leg after being hit by a car.

“They put the dog in my lap, and we left that day feeling really good we’d helped this great organization,” Stewart recalled. “And we also left with this 1-ish-year-old brindle Pit Bull. We called him Dipper. And in a world of good boys, he was the best.”

Dipper had the best life, too—he got to accompany Stewart to “The Daily Show” studio every weekday.

“He was part of the OG ‘Daily Show’ dog crew,” Stewart said. “He met actors and authors and presidents and kings.”

On Sunday, the Stewart family gathered together to say goodbye to Dipper.

“Thank goodness we were all with him,” Stewart said. “My wish for you is one day you find that one dog that just is the best.”

My heart goes out to Jon Stewart and his family. While Dipper is irreplaceable, my wish for them is one day they rescue another very good dog and their broken hearts are healed. 

Grab a tissue box and watch Stewart’s tribute to Dipper. Rest in peace, you very good boy.

If you’d like to make a donation in memory of Dipper, visit the Animal Haven website.

Photo: The Daily Show/YouTube

Puppy Bowl XX vs Super Bowl LVIII: Viewing Guide for Dog Lovers

The most exciting game of the year takes place on Sunday, February 11. That’s right, Puppy Bowl is celebrating its 20th anniversary! (Hey, that’s like 140 years in dog years.) Oh, and for Taylor Swift fans, Super Bowl LVIII (that’s 58 in regular numbers) is happening that very same day.

If you’re planning to root for Team Ruff or Team Fluff and the Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers, here’s what to expect for Puppy Bowl—and the dog commercials to look for in that other Bowl.

Puppy Bowl XX

To celebrate its 20th year, Puppy Bowl XX will have the most players ever—131 puppies from 73 shelters and rescues. And hopefully, if it’s like the previous 19 Puppy Bowls, each and every one of those adorable little guys will already be in forever homes by the time the big game airs. Yay!

Puppy Bowl XX also features the following for the first time ever:

  • Its tiniest competitor, a 1.7-pound Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel/Toy Poodle mix) named Sweetpea, and its biggest, a 70-pound Great Dane puppy named Levi. (No, these two will definitely not be on the gridiron at the same time.)
  • Puppies with special needs. Among them are Mr. Bean, a two-legged Papillon, and Riddle, a Pug mix with a neurological condition that causes coordination problems.
  • An assistant referee, appropriately named Whistle. The Bichon Frise mix just happens to be the foster dog of referee Dan Schachner.
  • The debut of the Puppy Bowl Hall of Fame, with the induction of four players from previous games.

Puppy Bowl XX airs on Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, Max, and Discovery+ at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific on February 11. If you miss any of it, there will be reruns on Animal Planet throughout Super Sunday. Go Team Ruff! Go Team Fluff!

Super Bowl LVIII Dog Commercials

Good news: After being inexplicably absent last year, those gorgeous Clydesdales are back in Budweiser’s new “Old School Delivery” commercial. Not only that, but the ad also features an adorable yellow Labrador Retriever who helps the horses deliver beer in a snowstorm! If you want to watch it again and again, here you go.

Tissue (Box) Alert! The “Tails of Hope” commercial for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y., is filmed from the point of view of therapy dog Hawk, a beautiful Golden Retriever. If this line—”They call me a therapy dog, but honestly I just feel like one lucky pup”—doesn’t make you reach for those tissues, you just ain’t wired right. Here’s a sneak peek in case you don’t want others to see you sobbing.

Swiftie Bowl—er, Super Bowl LVIII kicks off on February 11 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern/3:30 p.m Pacific on CBS.

Photo: Anheuser-Busch

2024 Rose Parade Features Very Important Dogs

Dogs are no strangers to the Tournament of Roses Parades held in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day (or the day after) for the past 135 years. Perhaps most memorably, live surfing dogs and not-so-live digging dogs have been featured on Rose Parade floats. In this year’s parade, dog lovers should keep an eye out for the Pasadena Humane float and, for the first time ever, an official parade “First Dog.”

Pasadena Humane Float Raises Awareness of Homeless Pets

Among the VIDs (very important dogs) in the 2024 parade are those riding on Pasadena Humane’s “Feed the Love” float. In addition to floral pets, the float features a few lucky dogs from the shelter who are now in loving forever homes.

Also riding the float is Lua, a Pit Bull mix who arrived at Pasadena Humane as a stray back in 2022.

“Lua is the perfect representation of many of the ‘longer stay’ shelter dogs at our shelter and other shelters around the country over the past year,” writes Pasadena Humane President Dia DuVernet. “She’s a well-mannered, middle-aged, large-breed dog who is likely overlooked due to her breed, age and size.”

Lua is “sweet, playful, and extremely loving, and adored by our staff, volunteers and her foster family,” Pasadena Humane wrote in a Facebook post. “Lua is honored to be representing all the amazing dogs in shelters across the country who are waiting for their new homes.”

First-Ever Official Rose Parade ‘First Dog’

The first-ever official Tournament of Roses Parade “First Dog” is Murphy, a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever who just happens to belong to Tournament of Roses President Alex Aghajanian. Murphy will be riding with his family on a double-decker red Omnibus,

“I knew about a year and a half after we got him that including him in the parade was a way to include other dog lovers,” Aghajanian told the Los Angeles Daily News. This year’s parade theme is “Celebrating the World of Music: The Universal Language,” and Aghajanian also wanted to celebrate his love of dogs.

Murphy’s official coat was created at Maestro’s Custom Tailors in Sierra Madre, Calif. It’s made of silk, with loops for a fancy bow-tie collar. Murphy had to visit the shop a few times for fittings—and to get used to those fittings.

“He’s not a human,” Kristine Keshishyan, whose husband designed Murphy’s coat, told the Daily News. “Because when you say, ‘Stand up,’ he lays down.” Murphy was given some treats to help make the fittings go more smoothly.

Keshishyan has been afraid of dogs since she was a little girl, but “First Dog” Murphy changed that. “It’s the first time in my life I petted a dog,” she told the Daily News. “It was a good day.”

Aghajanian said Murphy is the smartest dog he’s ever known. “It makes you want to talk to him, but then, when you ask him a question, you realize he can’t talk back to you,” he told the Daily News.

Happy New Year! My wish for 2024—besides world peace—is that Lua and all other amazing adoptable dogs find the loving homes they deserve.

The 135th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade livestreams and airs on various channels starting at 8 a.m. PST on Jan. 1, 2024.

Photo: Pasadena Humane

Happy, Yappy National Dog Day 2023!

For some (most?) of us pooch-lovin’ people, every day is Dog Day. For the 19th year, our four-legged friends are once again getting a special day that makes it official. National Dog Day is on August 26.

This day is intended to encourage people to recognize the number of dogs needing to be rescued, as well as to honor pups who save lives, keep us safe and bring us comfort.

National Dog Day was created in 2004 by pet lifestyle expert and author Colleen Paige. She chose Aug. 26 because it’s the anniversary of the day her dad adopted her family’s first dog, a Sheltie, when Paige was 10 years old.

She founded the holiday “to honor dogs, to give them a ‘day’ to show our deep appreciation for the historical connection of companionship with one another,” Paige says on the official website. “For their endearing patience, unquestioning loyalty, for their work protecting our streets, homes and families as police K-9s, military working dogs, guide dogs and therapy dogs.”

She was inspired by her rescue dog, Sailor, who “was tortured and starved when I found her in the shelter at 7 months old, and she taught me what unconditional love and trust really meant.”

The National Dog Day website has plenty of suggestions for ways to celebrate with your pooch, such as buying them a new toy, throwing a party and/or teaching them a new trick. Special events are planned across the country.

Looking for a new four-legged friend? Check out National Dog Day on Twitter, which will be tweeting info about adoptable dogs all day long.

If you don’t have a dog, you are asked to donate $5 to your favorite rescue or shelter. And whether or not you have a pooch, you can also celebrate by spending some quality time on Aug. 26 (or better yet, any day) visiting the lonely dogs at your local shelter.

I wish you and your pooch(es) a very Happy National Dog Day!

Photo: That’s my Ella, who’s now 13.5 years old (!) and the poster pooch for i Still Love Dogs.

Dog in Golf Cart Runs Over Little Girl (She’s OK!)

Here’s a news story you don’t read about very often: During a festival in Michigan last Friday night, an arson dog named Bella jumped down from the seat of a golf cart and laid across the accelerator.

The vehicle took off and a front tire ran over the leg of a 4-year-old girl, who fortunately was not injured.

Firefighters with the Westland Fire Department had jumped in the golf cart and were trying to steer it away from people attending the Blues, Brews and BBQ event in a Detroit suburb when the accident happened.

That little girl was very lucky. Due to the growing popularity of these vehicles, there were over 63,000 golf cart-related injuries from 2010 to 2019, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). About half of the injuries happened to children up to 12 years of age.

The Westland Fire Department had this good news to share in a press release: “Fortunately, the child was back to eating her popcorn within minutes of the incident and within 10 minutes of the incident was back to jumping in the fire department bounce house.”

As for Bella, the fire department says the 7-year-old black Lab was “definitely devastated” and will only be allowed back in the golf cart “with extra precautions in place,” NBC New York reports.

Photo: westland_arson_dog on Instagram

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