Meet ‘Carrie Pawshaw,’ a Pittsburgh rescue dog and Puppy Bowl star

It’s a fan favorite every Super Bowl Sunday, the Puppy Bowl.

This year, two puppies from Paws Across Pittsburgh are in the lineup. WPXI got to meet one of the four-legged stars.

By day, and around Pittsburgh, she goes by Betty. She was a stray in West Virginia when Paws Across Pittsburgh brought her here in August to her forever home with the Hoover family.

“I saw Betty on the Paws Across Facebook page, and as soon as you saw her, you just fell in love with that little face,” Jackie Hoover said.

Betty and those light blue eyes are now famous. While on stage, she goes by Carrie Pawshaw as a member of Team Ruff, competing in this year’s Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

“When we adopted her from Paws Cross Pittsburgh, which was a great organization, they had already submitted her to be accepted and we had to agree that if she was actually accepted into the Puppy Bowl, we had to allow them to take her,” Mark Hoover said. “We couldn’t tell anybody. That was the hardest part.”

So off to New York she went with a foster mom to compete against another Paws Across Pittsburgh star, Meeko, who is on Team Fluff.

During the taping, organizers would call the Hoovers with updates about touchdowns and more.

“She had a special moment with her ref, and so we’re anxious, just like everybody else, to see it because we’ve only heard sort of second hand what we might see,” Jackie Hoover said.

It’s only fitting that the Hoovers adopted a dog in the Puppy Bowl spotlight.

“It’s funny because when we were younger with our daughters, we would always watch the puppy bowl,” Mark Hoover said. “So, I mean, the Puppy Bowl has always been part of our Super Bowl Sunday tradition, and her being selected is just fantastic.”

Equally impressive is all the tricks Betty does at just 8 months old. She learned them all since the Hoovers adopted her in August. They say she’s brought nothing but joy since they’ve adopted her.

“I mean, it was a phenomenally easy process, and it’s been great for us,” Jackie Hoover said.

“Feels good to save a dog too,” Mark Hoover added.

This is the third straight year Paws Across Pittsburgh has had dogs featured in the Puppy Bowl.

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