Mao Asada loves poodles (and baseball)

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Mao Asada, the defending women’s world figure-skating champion, talked about the World Baseball Classic in the video above and her favorite player on Japan’s team, Ichiro Suzuki.

But Asada also was eager to show a group of Western reporters the thing she most misses from home -- her three poodles.

Their names are Aero (the mother) and Aero’s puppies Komachi and Tiara. ‘Tiara like you wear on your head,’ Asada said, just to make sure we all understood how to spell the name. The miniature poodles are rust-colored and adorable and Asada said she misses them very much.

-- Diane Pucin