Dogs, Cats, Frogs, Horses...This place is a zoo!

The Daily Freeman Pet Photo Contest is back! There are over four hundred entries already and a few more days before the deadline. Today I had the most delightful job of opening up envelope after envelope of photo's displaying animal owners' best friends.

It's a good thing I'm an animal lover, or else I probably would have gotten sick of looking at dogs, cats, hamsters, frogs, donkeys, horses, chinchillas, and even goats. I have my own dog named Daisy Jane Bubbles Bergstrom who I love more than my own sisters, so I was able to relate to the messages that pet owners attached to the photos of their animals.

As I was reading the descriptions that came along with the photos, there were many animals who were adopted after being rescued. There was one dog who was born without eyes; yet the owner described him as the happiest, most loving dog in the world. There was another dog who had multiple physical disabilities because he was the result of inbreeding; yet he also had an owner that loved him.

A lot of pet owners described their pets as their "best friends". To them, an animal is someone who has loved them, filled the place of a loved one who has passed, someone who greets them at the door after a hard day of work, or someone who can simply put a smile on their face even when they're in the worst of moods.

People love their pets; so it is understandable that there is an overabundant and extremely diverse number of submissions. There are seven categories in the contest that include: weirdest pet, best looking pet, best photo composition, best expression, best pet pals, best outfit, and best owner look-alike.

I've spent the day here at the Freeman, opening envelopes and e-mails, reading descriptions,and sorting each photo into the separate categories (while adoring each animal as I went.) While I was able to sort most of the entries into categories, I unfortunately had to disqualify some entries because they did not follow the guidelines.

The winner of each category will be chosen by a series of judges after the final deadline. I am really excited because I just found out that I will be writing about the pet photo contest; mostly because I went through all of them and have seen which pets have gone into which categories.

I am very excited to do this not only because I love animals but because I will be writing for something outside of school and that is something new to me. I know it is not the biggest deal in the world but it is definitely something I am looking forward to.