With help from the Flyers, abandoned puppies are finding forever homes: 'It was a yes immediately'

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 28, 2025

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHILADELPHIA — Cecilia Nolan had to immediately text her husband. Nolan, who works on the assignment desk at NBC10 and Telemundo, had fallen in love at work.

She fell in love with two brown puppy dog eyes surrounded by a floof of white and brown fur and the cutest black snout. It was puppy love.

“I saw him, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love him,’ ” she said after several abandoned puppies were brought to the station by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for a feature story. “I started playing a little bit with him, and then, I don’t know, I just knew. I immediately sent a message to my husband, and I’m like, ‘Hey, we should adopt this one.’ ”

And they did.

The Philadelphian picked up “Catesy,” named after Flyers forward Noah Cates, who hand-delivered the pup to Nolan on Tuesday at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J. However, there’s a good chance this will be the last time she can lift the Great Pyrenees mix. He is already 15 pounds at just 9 weeks old.

“Really cute,” said Cates, when asked to give a scouting report on his namesake. “And I kind of thought or heard that he was one of the bigger ones, so he might be a pretty big dog because they’re supposed to get to over 100 pounds.”

Catesy the puppy was one of nine found in a box by a good Samaritan in a park in Lower Merion in mid-December. The good Samaritan brought them to the PSPCA, and while they were a bit dirty, they were in good shape. But then came the most difficult decision: What to name them.

“We love this team, and we’ve had the honor of working with them,” Gillian Kocher, public relations director for the PSPCA, said of the Flyers. “Through coach [John] Tortorella, we do the ‘Hockey and Hounds’ initiative, so he features our dogs on his podcast every other week. He’s also supported us through his foundation to help with some of our adoption events. But we’re just big fans of the Flyers and of Torts. So anything we can do to tie in, we want to.”

The nine pups — playful Coots, Mich, TK and Laughts, goofy Ers, sassy Hath, calm Seels, Sanny with the big personality, and the leader Catesy — went from unknowns to instant celebrities. All but Laughts, Coots and Seels have found their forever homes so far.

The pups made their first appearance in the Flyers locker room in early January — before the team went on a 5-0-1 tear. Maybe Catesy’s stop on Tuesday can bring some new luck.

“That was nice, to just kind of break it up, something different, and have some puppies around to just play with them,” Cates said about the day in early January. “It was good and fun, and to know that they’re getting adopted and loved is great.”

Catesy the player is hoping to get updates on Catesy the dog. However, the soon-to-be massive pet will be going by a new name: Chopper. But don’t worry, Catesy will now be his middle name. And while Nolan and her husband had been in discussions to get a dog for a while, destiny got them one.

“He made it easier,” she said with a laugh. “He’s pretty cute. It was a yes immediately.”