As the clock ticks slowly to midnight, animals all around Pike County are keeping close eyes on the hands in hopes they won’t be left out of the 2019 Pet Photo Contest.

Donna Brockmann, president of the sponsoring Humane Society of Pike County, said the deadline for entry in the local humane society’s annual fundraiser is tonight at midnight.

“When the clock strikes the midnight hour, the entries that we have will be the competitors in the 2019 Pet Photo Contest,” Brockmann said. “Right now, the first five entries with the most votes are dogs. The ‘top dog’ has 337 votes, but history tells us that number will not win. There will be a lot of movement of the numbers before the voting ends at 5 p.m. on September 1. It will be exciting to the finish.”

As with all Pet Photo Contests, there have been surprises, Brockmann said.

“This year we have more entries from out of town than we have had in the past,” she said. “All of those animals have attachments to Pike County and we welcome them. We also have more ‘in memory’ entries than before. We already have 11 and could have more before the midnight hour.”

Brockmann said there is also a large number of “new” entries.

“A lot of pets have been entered that have not been in the contest before and that’s exciting,” she said. “This will be Alabama’s Bicentennial year calendar and will be keepsake so we encourage all pet owners to take a few minutes and snap a photo and email it to the contest before midnight or, if you have a favorite photo, take it to a location that is accepting entries before 5 p.m. today.”

Entries are $10 each and entries may be made online at www.pikehumane.org. Entry forms are also available at Guynn’s Income Tax and Bookkeeping Service, Jinright’s Hillside Antiques, The Little Framery and Three Notch Antiques (formerly Troy Antiques), all in Troy. Photos must be included with the entry forms. The deadline for entry is 5 p.m. today.

The pet with the greatest number of votes will be featured on the cover of the 2019 Pet Photo Calendar. The pets with the 13 next highest votes will be honored as the monthly winners. There will be 52 weekly winners and the honorable mentions. All pets entered in the Pet Photo Contest will be pictured on the 2019 Pet Photo Calendar.