|
Local Bulldog is Chicago Mascot
By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY and MARLY KOSINSKI Tribune Chronicle
HOWLAND - The fanfare wasn´t at a premium as Chicago celebrity Mr. Meatball arrived here Friday.
Unless greetings at the Avalon Estates home of Dominic and Bernice Marino count for anything.
By Saturday morning Meatball - a 3-year-old, rescued, pure-bred, 52-pound English bulldog - was basking in the sunshine with his traveling companion Alice Bean and owner/activist Molly Marino.
The trip from the Windy City was grueling, but not near the pace that Meatball has been living since being named winner of "Fan´s Best Friend."
Meatball, who owes his life to Marino, a 1991 Howland High School graduate and marketing director at a Chicago investment research company, was chosen as the official mascot for Comcast SportsNet´s advertising campaign that hypes live games broadcast for the Chicago sports teams - the White Sox, Bulls, Cubs, Bears and Blackhawks.
The games occasionally are aired on a local cable or satellite TV and show the dog pacing across the bottom of the screen or sitting up next to a television screen.
"He was just the perfect dog to represent our station. He´s cute, but still tough looking," said Jeff Nuich, director of communications for Comcast. "The fan response to this dog has been unlike anything we´ve ever seen."
The station is still holding a contest to rename the mascot.
But Marino, the daughter of retired teachers and tennis coaches who now concentrate on selling real estate, said her pet will always be Meatball to her.
As a downtown Chicago resident, Marino, who stopped with both bulldogs to visit her parents this weekend, is used to the $25 daily charge for doggie day care or the $12 fee charged to take the dogs for a walk. They even play classical music at Meatball´s day care center.
But it´s not too much for the animal now featured on the TV spots, billboards, magazines, newspapers and the sides of buses in Chicagoland.
"A lot of people don´t realize how expensive it is to own a bulldog anywhere. Medical care is costly," said Marino, an organizer of a pure-bred English Bulldog Rescue that serves Illinois, northern Indiana and southern Wisconsin. The organization places abandoned and unwanted species with families.
Marino said her dedication to the pets obviously comes from her mother, who spent years volunteering with the Trumbull Animal Welfare League.
cbobby@tribune-chronicle.com |
