Sweetpea, Puppy Bowl star and tiny rescue, dead at 5 months old

The world lost Puppy Bowl’s tiniest puppy to ever participate.

Sweetpea — a Cavapoo breed, or a mix between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a poodle — weighed just 1.7 pounds at the time of the Puppy Bowl 2024, which aired on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 11.

But the Puppy Bowl was filmed in October 2023, and many fans who fell in love with Sweetpea didn’t know that she didn’t live to see her big debut air.

Sweetpea — born on July 1, 2023, in Tennessee and raised at Bosley’s Place rescue in Georgia — died from a kidney illness on Nov. 20, 2023, at just 5 months old, Jennifer Siegel, the animal director at the facility, confirmed to USA Today.

“Sweetpea lived a charming life,” Siegel said. “She was very loving. Everyone loved Sweetpea. We knew when she came to our rescue, she was going to be a medical nightmare. We made sure she was taken care of well and gave her the best life possible with her short life expectancy.”

Siegel shared that Sweetpea had a hole in her heart and was born with hydrocephalus, a neurological disorder caused by an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in cavities deep within the brain, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“She arrived to our rescue on her deathbed,” Siegel said. “I started doing medical diagnostics and testing. When she was about four weeks old, it was limited what we were able to do when she was that tiny, so as she grew, we did more and more ultrasounds, and echocardiograms, she also did a couple of hospital stays through the ER due to blue baby syndrome’s, when I tried to wean her off the bottle.”

Things started to look up for Sweetpea in September when she was about 8 weeks old and the hole in her heart closed up on its own. This was around the same time she was selected to participate in the 2024 Super Bowl.

The small puppy died unexpectedly on the way to the hospital at the University of Georgia for a check-up. She passed away on Siegel’s lap.

An autopsy revealed Sweetpea’s cause of death was due to deformed kidneys, and she wasn’t able to process protein.

When the Puppy Bowl 2024 aired, Siegel watched in private, knowing that it would be “heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.”

The pup gained a lot of fame during the airing, and people only found out about her passing from a Feb. 11 social media post by Animal Planet dedicating the 20th Puppy Bowl to her memory.

“Sweetpea was rescued by a shelter that specializes in helping special needs puppies,” the post said. “Sadly, she was unable to overcome her health issues. We dedicate #PuppyBowl XX to her memory.”

Bosley’s Place is a nursery and sanctuary for homeless and orphaned neonatal puppies that provides bottle feeding and 24-hour care, according to the website.

“She should be looked at as a legacy for rescue,” Siegel said. “Sweetpea had a great life and brought a smile to thousands of people’s faces.”