By Camilla Mortensen and Taylor Perse 

“It’s been a rough year,” we whined. “COVID, climate change and wildfires got us down.” 

And just like everyone else we know on social media, we basically said, “Send us photos of your pets to cheer us up.”

And you did. For the past two weeks, instead of the usual overabundance of press releases for CBD products, offers of free beer samples, updates on COVID cases and the latest crime news our inboxes have overflowed with fluffy goodness (and at least one duck). 

We sent the photos to our staff and interns to judge the winners, and it was hard. Winners were:

Cutest: Molly the Chihuahua mix

Unconventional Beauty: Björn the alpaca

Best Dressed: Mama and Benny the pitbulls in sunflower and pumpkin costumes. (Because we want you to have some of the fun we had, we’ve uploaded all the images to the online gallery below.)

And but it wasn’t just the photos, it’s the stories you sent with them — stories that pulled at our heartstrings. 

There was Annapurna, the “sassy crankypants” kitty who “left this world with the same fight that she lived it,” and Howard the Boston terrier service dog who has saved his person “time and time again. Even if he doesn’t win this contest, he has won my heart.” And rescues such as Barry Licksalot Cameron, and adorably droopy Squishy, who was rescued off the streets by Northwest Dog Project after being pepper sprayed, and Merlot the 1.9 lb rescue cat who can’t retain heat and wears hand-knit sweaters. Then there were the frosted-faced older dogs, who kill us every time with their grey-haired, boopable snoots. 

And if they weren’t pulling at our hearts they were making us giggle — a passel of pugs wearing ribbons, dogs in cowboy hats, dogs dressed for Pride, corgis in top hats, cats in tulle, cats looking in the mirror, hiding in closets and sitting in weird ways and in weird places — like “the asshole box.” And so many photos of cats pondering their “ineffable effable/ effanineffable/ deep and inscrutable singular Name.”

And not to piss off the cat people, but let’s end on the just plain awesome dogs: golden retrievers being floppy, Havanese climbing peaks, pitties in hats and bandanas, dogs with undershot jaws and crazy eyes, all the wild wonderfulness that are pets. 

Thank you readers, we needed that.

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