Captain Mulligans pub erupted in cheers Sunday afternoon when hometown hero, Miss Coco, appeared on the TV. The first British Virgin Islands dog to play in the annual Puppy Bowl, Coco promptly kicked a field goal.
Coco, an island dog mix rescued by the Humane Society of BVI, entered the game late in the second quarter and immediately made an impact for Team Ruff.
“The whole place was going crazy loud, people shouting, Go Coco!” shelter manager Vijay Bissoondutt said Monday.
Coco wrestled briefly with Kentucky Humane Society’s three-legged mixed-breed Wynonna before hind-legging a ball over the goal line.
The Puppy Bowl has aired before the other big game since 2003, raising awareness for animal shelters and helping pets in need find permanent homes. Team Fluff wore blue bandannas; Team Ruff wore orange.
Carrying a toy across the goal line is seven points; kicking or nosing a toy across is three. Team Fluff won Puppy Bowl XXII, 73-69 — but more attention was put on tugs of war, chasing each other, and the camera’s view from under a glass-bottom water dish.
Bissoondutt and Coco were featured in a “pup-close and personal” segment during Sunday’s broadcast.
“Coco came into the shelter at roughly six weeks old with three other siblings,” Bissoondutt said in the broadcast. Sick and malnourished, it took care and attention to bring around the energetic, happy-go-lucky dog on TV.
“Coco, man, she’s a very happy dog. She’s like a ping-pong ball — just keep bouncing and bouncing,” he said.
The Discovery Channel produced a hype video for Coco’s chance at the Pupularity Contest. She lost, however, to Rhett, the tiny basset hound.
Bissoondutt had never heard of Puppy Bowl XXII before its producers reached out, and getting Coco to the big show was no small task.
The Humane Society of BVI didn’t have any puppies older than six months and weighing less than 20 pounds, as Warner Bros. Discovery producers required. Coconut retrievers, as island dogs are sometimes called, tend to grow fast, Bissoondutt said. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, he found a way to get four-month-old Coco to a foster family in Long Island, New York, two months before filming.
All too often, Bissoondutt arrives at work to find a box of abandoned puppies or kittens shivering in fear. Older dogs are sometimes left tied to the door or thrown over the fence, he said.
“I have 75 dogs looking for homes. Why shop when you can adopt?” he said.
Bissoondutt started at the shelter as a teenage volunteer in 1997, then took over the management duties in 2013 when the previous manager died.
“I was the only one there who knew what was happening. If I had not taken it up we might not have a shelter,” he said Monday.
Hurricane Irma thrashed the shelter in 2017. After lengthy repairs to the old building, the shelter moved to a new, larger facility in Road Town’s Johnston’s Ghut, on Purcell Road behind the Riteway.
The shelter now has two paid employees but no government funding, relying on donations. Food, pet shampoo, and linens for bathing and bedding are always needed, he said.
“We depend on the broader community, the greater society to keep the doors open,” Bissoondutt said.
In 2022, Queen Elizabeth recognized Bissoondutt’s dedication and awarded him the prestigious Most Excellent Order of the British Empire membership.
