Watch above: Mike Sobel attempts to give the weather forecast but Ripple the dog just wants to play.
EDMONTON — What started out as a regular Wednesday morning forecast for Global Edmonton weather specialist Mike Sobel has turned into an internet sensation.
Last week, the Edmonton Humane Society stopped by the station with Ripple, a one-year-old Shepherd-Mastiff cross. The boisterous young pup was up for adoption and, as he does every week, Mike brought him up to the weather board to do the forecast together.
But Ripple didn’t seem to care that there was work to be done. He took over the weather forecast, making it play time with Mike.
Since the weather segment aired on Wednesday it has gone viral. It has been picked up by several popular websites including BuzzFeed, Gawker and Failblog.
Mike’s struggle with Ripple was even talked about on ABC’s Good Morning America.
By Monday, CNN was featuring the video on its homepage, the Chive had posted it, as had Perez Hilton, Slate and People magazine, and Ellen Degeneres even posted the video on her show’s Facebook page.
Mike was even interviewed by Inside Edition Monday morning.
“This is a regular segment we do every Wednesday,” Mike told the host, explaining the Edmonton Humane Society segment. “I typically go on the air and do my weather cast and bring the animal with me.”
“I’ve probably been doing those segments for about 15 years and I can certainly say this was the most rambunctious dog that I’ve come across.”
“But the bottom line was… I wanted to get that dog adopted,” added Mike.
(Raw video: Mike Sobel is interviewed by Inside Edition about Ripple the weather dog and the rambunctious weather segment.)
This isn’t the first animal to have a mind of its own on Global Edmonton’s Morning News. A cat has hissed at Global Edmonton’s traffic anchor, a dinosaur nearly chomped off Mike’s hand, and another pup got his leash tangled up in Mike’s legs. On a Global Toronto newscast, Storm the weather dog made a creative appearance during a forecast.
The good news about Ripple is many people have shown interest in adopting him.
“Obviously we’ve been getting a lot of attention – just like you guys have – from around the world as far as media outlets go,” said Edmonton Humane Society spokesperson Warren Dean on Monday afternoon.
Ripple’s online adoption profile has even been updated to include his recent internet fame.
“A lot of the people coming to the Edmonton Humane Society are talking about Ripple and asking if he’s been adopted yet, or if he’s still here, or ‘can we go see him?'”
“He’s still here and he’s still looking for that forever home.”
For more information on adopting Ripple, or any other animal, visit the Edmonton Humane Society’s website.
(Watch below: The Edmonton Humane Society document the reunion between Mike and Ripple)
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