Pudge and family present on 'pets as therapy' at UF

FINDLAY — At 7:30 a.m. Friday, with the temperatures in single digits, a crowd arrived at the University of Findlay's Winebrenner Building. There they lined up, starstruck, each waiting for their moment with the morning's celebrity visitor. Pudge, the exotic shorthair cat and social media sensation, took in the admiration calmly. He spent the entire hour and a half of his Findlay appearance "chillaxing," in fact. His owner, Bowling Green State University Falcons long snapper George Carlson, said that is typical for Pudge. George Carlson and his father, Jim Carlson, DVM, who owns a veterinary practice in Illinois focusing on holistic treatment for pets, were at UF for a "Fridays at Findlay" presentation titled "Pets as Therapy: How Pets Can Improve Our Lives." Moderator Marcia Latta, senior philanthropy advisor at UF, opened by pointing out that many attendees had likely been following Pudge's rise to stardom closely, but others might agree with a UF colleague who had told Latta, "Oh, I'd love to hear about pets as therapy! Who is this little orange cat?" For the uninitiated, the saga began when George Carlson brought Pudge into the Falcons locker room in the middle of fall camp. A player had been injured the previous day, and he thought the cat might cheer everyone up. "The team really loved him," George said. "They really embraced him." Some players hadn't been fans of cats in general, but Pudge's laid-back personality quickly won them over. A teammate made a TikTok video, which went viral and now has more than 2 million views. A couple of subsequent social media posts made it clear that BGSU had a star in the making. George began regularly bringing Pudge to football games and other public places. "It just really took off," he said. Since then, Pudge has appeared on national media including CBS News, CBS Sports Network, Fox News, The Athletic and ESPN College GameDay, among many others. He attended both home and away football games in his bubble backpack, protected by his official "Pudge Security" team. Because Pudge was essentially the first cat in college football, he was quickly sought after by cat food brands once he became established. George Carlson has worked with brands including Temptations, Purina and Litter-Robot. There are Pudge T-shirts and Pudge stickers. On Nov. 20, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum revealed an officially licensed, limited-edition collectible Pudge bobblehead. "I really attribute it to his looks," George Carlson said of his pet's runaway fame. Exotic shorthairs "kind of look like a teddy bear," he said. They have a big, round head, ears that stick up and chubby cheeks. Often they have several double chins, although Pudge has only one double chin, he noted. "You don't normally see a cat like this," he said. "I think that's really what the draw was, is that he's this cute little cat, and he's in a football locker room, right? We never see that." From that first day onward, George has seen Pudge bring a smile to people's faces. "They light up… People have been a lot more joyful," he said. Jim Carlson, a veterinarian for nearly 28 years, said most pet owners view their pet as a member of their family. When a person is sad, it's hard not to cheer up and smile upon interacting with a cat, he said. "Especially with Pudge," he said. "I mean, you look at his little face and you can't help but smile. You can't help it." He said service dogs and therapy animals go through training before doing their work, but even without such training, animals offer emotional support and help calm people down in stressful situations. Both Carlsons have experienced this personally. Last year, George's mother and Jim's wife died from cancer. George said that, while he's in regular contact with his father and sister, they are far from Bowling Green. "So Pudge really was a light in that time," he said. George added that his position as long snapper requires a lot of mental focus. By helping improve his mood, Pudge also helped him as a player. The cat would also make him laugh with his short attention span and tendency to veer, within minutes, from attacking a ping-pong ball to grooming himself to eating and back again. Jim Carlson, too, found animals helped him in his grief. He has several pets at home, and said a Persian cat named Chucky made a particular difference. He said a cat's purr is at a healing frequency, similar to how some music is particularly soothing. "Animals have that natural rhythm to calm," he said. In response to an audience question about how cats purr, Jim Carlson said they have a mechanism in the back of their throat that vibrates as they breathe in and out. He likened it to the bagpipes. Cats can purr at will, just as humans can whistle. They purr when they themselves are stressed, such as at a vet clinic, but they also purr out of happiness and when they sense their humans are stressed. George said Pudge continues "chillaxing" even on busy days when he has many adoring fans to greet. Neither loud noise nor strangers picking him up faze him, he said. Throughout Friday's presentation, Pudge mostly sat still beside George. He appeared intrigued by the microphone George was using at first, and looked up with apparent interest when Jim began talking about the therapeutic role of pets. He sat still almost the entire time, briefly trying to climb down from his chair at one point but giving up the effort agreeably when George stopped him. Nuzzling against George's knee at another point in the morning, he gazed at his audience quietly. As Latta noted, he had not let his celebrity go to his head. George Carlson said he has been struck by the community's love for Pudge. They celebrated his birthday on Nov. 3 at a BGSU basketball game, where Pudge received many presents and attendees kept telling George how good Pudge has been for the community. "It's so much positivity and such a loyal fanbase around Pudge," he said, scratching Pudge's head as he spoke. His father said he had noticed how this fanbase extended to opposing teams. When BGSU played Cincinnati, "they were just going wild, so happy," and in Louisville, "they had a little locker room for him," Jim Carlson said. It made him realize not just the strong bonds animals have with humans, but how they can even bring different humans together.