By Elisa Black-Taylor

When I heard the name of this contest, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or take it seriously. As it turns out, I’m doing both. Mainly because I love the idea of a contest geared toward the older pet.

We see enough contests asking people to send in photographs of their cute, young and perky dogs and cats. It’s what the majority of people want in a new pet and also what many like to photograph.

I’m all for a contest of this type that honors the older pet. You can tell looking at the photographs that these pets are older. They’re also well loved by people who respect older animals.

This particular contest is sponsored by what I assume is a local company called Personal Touch Carpet Care. The prize is $400 worth of carpet.

Valerie Rushers’ 18 year old cat Peaches

The photo above is my friend Valerie Rusher’s cat Peaches. Peaches is 18 years old now so she definitely qualifies as old. Peaches is cat #22 and if she wins, Valerie plans to donate the prize to a needy family. For those of you who are wondering, I don’t know Valerie personally. I found the info for this contest on the pictures-of-cats.org Facebook group page when I went to post Sealy’s latest photo and article. I was taken by the name of the contest and decided to build a story around it. So feel free to vote for Valerie’s cat or any other pet, or there’s still time to enter your own. I’m not interested in the prize since this does appear to be a local thing.

This would be a great contest for any business to hold. Even those who don’t sell pet related products could benefit by this type of advertising as it allows cat and dog lovers to enter photos of their beloved older cats. Running a contest with a prize worth a few hundred dollars is great advertising and more likely to be remembered than simply placing an ad in a newspaper or online.

How do the reader’s here feel about an old ass pet contest? At what age should a cat or dog quality as an old ass?

This is the most fun I’ve had with a story in a LONG time. J

Elisa