Puppy Bowl V offers alternatives for non-football fans

If watching the Sunday's big football game isn't your thing, there's an alternative: Animal Planet's fifth annual Puppy Bowl. The unique show will air at 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 1, on Animal Planet. While the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers go helmet-to-helmet in Tampa, "Pepper the Parrot" will kick-off the Puppy Bowl with a unique rendition of the national anthem. Then 20 puppies listed on Petfinder. com will fumble and tumble on their own gridiron. Halftime will feature the cat capers of the Kitty Entertainers.

The focus of Puppy Bowl is pet adoption, and viewers can log on to Petfinder. com, the first and largest online, searchable database of adoptable pets, to learn about adopting or fostering a pet in their commu- nity.

The Web site lists about 200,000 pets on any given day at more than 12,500 animal placement organizations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It has facilitated more than 13 million adoptions since it launched.

Petfinder.com is free to both visitors and to its animal placement organization members.