Karlie was 15 when she got dumped.
“I was given up because I was too old,” the sign on her shelter crate read.
“Can you imagine? A dog with bows in her hair given up because she was too old,” says Jill Rappaport, the TV personality-turned-animal activist who’s made it her mission to promote shelter adoptions.
“I help the underdogs of the shelter world … We have a dog in a wheelchair, and another whose legs don’t bend properly — and Karlie,” an adorable 16-year-old bichon frise mix.
Well, the “proud parent” of six rescue pets hasn’t totally traded the red carpet for wee-wee pads: Rappaport tells the “back stories” of the precious pups in the “Puppy Bowl,” airing Super Bowl Sunday on the Animal Planet channel.
But her pet project is its spinoff, “Dog Bowl II” — for the senior canines so often overlooked in the twilight of their lives.
Nearly 3.3 million dogs enter US animal shelters nationwide every year — and many seniors are among the 670,000 euthanized annually, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
But old dogs, Rappaport says, are simply “the best.”
“They have been there, and done that. They are chill, mellow, trained and so happy to be given a second chance in life,” she says.
“When you take in a pet that has known a home and doesn’t have one anymore, they thrive and survive.”
Oh, and age is just a number.
“You’d be amazed how much more time you have than you’d think,” Rappaport says.
More than 150 “Bowl” dogs from 31 shelters in 15 states will be up for adoption this weekend, including some seniors with special needs: a three-legged beagle mix, a partially blind Chihuahua and a deaf Australian shepherd-border collie mix.
“I consider it my mission to help people adopt these dogs,” Rappaport says.
Animal Planet’s “Dog Bowl II” premieres at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2., and “Puppy Bowl XV” airs at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 3.
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