Puppies make for best Super Bowl action

Admit it: your mind started to wander after the halftime show. You'd pegged the winner, watched "Purple Rain"sung with too much literalism, and couldn't care less about the ads.

So maybe you wised up and tuned into Animal Planet's broadcast ofPuppy Bowl III, three hours of puppies playing in a pen that looked like a football field (with the occasional appearance of an attendant in referee stripes to vacuum and clean up the field).

But haven't we all had it up to our collars with online pics and clips of "the cutest!!!" pups and kitties?

Nope.

Last year'sPuppy Bowl II had 7 million viewers (a 21 percent bump over 2005'sPuppy Bowl I), and since yesterday,Animal Planet's Web site has logged more than 1.3 million votes for MVP (most valuable...puppy) of the "game."

Sadly, I missed the disco-rific Kitten Halftime show, though it's now on Animal Planet's Web site. More sadly, I see my husband has just added bothPuppy Bowl I andPuppy Bowl II to the top of our Netflix queue. (Only 2.5 stars people? C'mon, they're puppies! Be nice.) And we don't even have kids as an excuse.

The show is, perhaps, genius in its simplicity. Tallying more than a million Web votes overnight ain't bad for a show that just as easily could have been on YouTube and called "Tossing puppies into a pit (gently)." No dialog, no rules, no surprises...aGirls Gone Wild for furball fetishists, if you will.

I have to wonder how much those Petco and Kibbles 'N Bits ads will go for next year. And how well Spike did last night with its competing marathon ofWhen Animals Attack. Oh, Spike.

I'm off now to go vote (again) forAction Jackson, the 10-week old golden retriever. Poor little Jackson's getting slaughtered by Larry, who clearly got the "Mommy, he looks likeClifford the Big Red Dog!" vote. And that's just wrong.