It’s all over but the shouting – the meowing – rather.

The 2010 Pet Photo Contest sponsored by the Humane Society of Pike County officially ended at midnight Monday and Brandy Grace, a calico kitty, the companion pet of Kenny and Elaine Pinckard, is the unofficial winner with an astounding, 1,172 votes.

Lisa Howard, contest coordinator, said any mail-in votes that are postmarked Aug. 31, will count and will have to tallied before the contest becomes official.

“The closest challenger has 530 votes and the pet in third place has 450,” Howard said. “But anything can happen so we’re not going to announce a winner until all the votes are in at the end of the week.”

The Pet Photo Contest was a fundraiser for the humane society. Voting was done by the dollar, which will be used to fund the society’s projects, including its annual spay and neuter and feral cat programs and its education programs.

Howard said the 2010 Pet Photo Contest was a tremendous success.

“In the beginning the entries were slow coming in but, when they picked up, it was amazing,” she said. “We ended with 107 entries, and I was afraid that might knock down the vote totals but it didn’t. In fact, we had more pets with more votes this year than last.”

There were quite a few pets with 200 or more votes and the majority of them had 30 or more votes.

“I could never have imagined that the response would be so huge,” Howard said. “We’ve taken in more than $6,000 in votes along and the entry fees which were 1,070 so the contest was a tremendous success. Now, we’ll put the money on the animals.”

Howard expressed appreciation to those who entered their animals and the many who voted on their favorite pets.

“The people of Troy and Pike County really supported the contest and votes also came in from outside the county and as far away as Kansas and Texas,” Howard said. “There’s no way to say how much we appreciate the participation. We will be able to do more to control animal over population and in educating the public about animal issues.

“Without the support of the community, we couldn’t do the projects that we do. We are very appreciative.”

The winner of the 2010 Pet Photo Contest will be featured on the cover of the 2010 Pet Photo Calendar, which will be on sale in time for Christmas. The 12 pets with the most votes will be the featured pets of the months and the other pets will also be pictured.”