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The Pike Animal Shelter is sponsoring an animal coloring contest with a two-fold purpose: To encourage kids to visit the animals at the shelter and to increase the opportunities for shelter animals to find forever homes.

“Everybody enjoys the fellowship and friendship of company, and, so do the animals at the Pike Animal Shelter in Troy,” said Katherine Maddox.

However, with school, ball and other activities, children’s visits to the Pike Animal Shelter are limited,

“In an effort to encourage more kids’ visits to the Pike Animal Shelter, the shelter is sponsoring a coloring contest for two age groups. One group is for kids up to seven years of age and the second group is for ages eight to 13,” Maddox said. The coloring contest ends on Tuesday, February 28.  It’s a fun contest and a way to heighten children’s interest in shelter animals.”

The coloring sheets are available for pickup at the Pike Animal Shelter, Troy Recreation Center, Tractor Supply and Pet Sense. All coloring sheet entries must be returned to the Pike Animal Shelter.

There will be two contest winners and each will receive Little Caesars’ gift cards.

Hopes are that, when the coloring sheets are picked up at the shelter and later returned, the kids will take a few minutes to “visit” with the animals, Maddox said.

“The animals will enjoy having children around and most children love animals,” Maddox said. “Hopefully, the coloring contest will be encouragement for children to visit the animals at the shelter. It would be great if some of the animals would be adopted. However, the primary purpose of the coloring contest is to encourage visits to the animal shelter and for the children and animals to interact. Finding a forever home for an animal would be an added bonus.