Who will be the best boys and girls of Puppy Bowl XIV? That's anyone's guess. We'll find out Sunday at noon.

But Animal Planet has already posted the special that will air before Sunday's battle royale, and it's streaming on their site for free, along with a few other related featurettes.

It has several people in it, but there are still lots of dogs, so it's not a total waste.

I know there are still a lot of people out there (and several other people in here) who hate dogs, and that's fine, I suppose. You can't force people to know the experience of love or compassion.

But you should just bear in mind that the dogs of Puppy Bowl—which began life as a stoner counterprogramming gag and has become a venerable tradition among people who haven't watched the Super Bowl since before you had to look the Roman numerals up—are rescues, often from areas hit hard by natural disaster, and are available for adoption.

Now that Seattle is no longer required to pretend to care about football, even during the playoffs, it seems likely the Puppy Bowl numbers will be good and healthy this year. Maybe you'll even see some of the stars hanging out at local night spots in the weeks to come.