In today’s other big game, Las Vegas player sure to lick opponents

By Tom Gorman

Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegans will have a hometown player to root for on Super Bowl Sunday — an open-field runner who, like a wide receiver who scores a touchdown and plays to the crowd, is likely to stop at the nearest sideline camera and lick the lens.

It’s the 11th annual "Puppy Bowl," when 55 immature canines from shelters and rescue organizations across the country trump the billion-dollar NFL with their own brand of frolicking, frisky cuteness, kept in check by a pun-rich rufferee (sorry) who will be watching for backfields in motion and unnecessary ruffness. (Can’t be helped.)

Among the puppies: Keno, a mixed breed from Las Vegas who his rescuers think could win MVP honors, paws down.

“He’s very photogenic,” said Doug Duke, executive director of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which successfully nominated Keno for the "Puppy Bowl." “He’s just the cutest little mixed breed — and I think it’s great that Las Vegas is sending a mixed breed to the 'Puppy Bowl'."

“Everyone has a different opinion of what he is — I think he’s Maltese and terrier mix,” Duke said. “He’s the kind of dog that when you stop to hug him, he’s wagging his tail and licking your chin and cheeks. He’s a little angel.”

Keno was just a few weeks old when he and a sibling, nestled in a cardboard box, were brought to the Nevada SPCA shelter on West Dewey Drive by an unwanting family. Because the dogs were too young for adoption, they were cared for by a foster home.

Keno’s caregivers were good photographers and their photos of the cheerful pup got people’s attention at the shelter. When the Animal Planet reached out for puppies, Duke wasted no time in sending the photos to New York.

"Puppy Bowl" players were selected from thousands of entries to reflect all sizes and a multitude of breeds, said Animal Planet spokeswoman Karin Failla.

Our local puppy got selected and, as detailed in an article posted on AVclub.com, the taping was, as always, a riot of furry fun. (The "Puppy Bowl" was prerecorded with multiple cameras over a two-day period, resulting in hundreds of hours of video, including some from beneath a clear-bottomed water dish. Viewers get to see the most pawesome two hours’ worth.

Since the taping, Keno — and his brother, Chip — have been adopted into a “forever homes” and today, thanks to his "Puppy Bowl" credits, Keno is something of a poster child for the shelter, his portrait emblazoned with the slogan, “For the Underdogs!”

Whether Keno will score a winning touchdown as his side — “Team Fluff” — takes on “Team Ruff,” the Animal Planet folks won’t say. But too often in previous years a quarterbark on a keeper, or a wide retriever, has carried the toy football down the 19-foot-long field, only to drop it just shy of the end zone in order to smell a line barker. (Okay, some of these puns come to us from Animal Planet.)

The pups won’t go without sideline support: In addition to volunteer dog handlers and Humane Society representatives on watch for dogs that seem too pooped to play, the "Puppy Bowl" comes with cheerleaders — bleating goats.

And for halftime entertainment: a cat spectacular with a headliner. Let’s put our paws together for Katty Furry!

Animal Planet’s "Puppy Bowl XI" starts at 3 p.m. today and repeats every two hours throughout the day on Cox Cable channels 58 and 1058.