The Sixth Annual “Tally Top Pet” contest gets underway this Saturday (3/5/16) and the event has some new twists this year.
Gerry Phipps is one of many thousands of the area’s proud pet owners.
“I love my kitty cats and my dogs!” she exclaimed. “They’re my babies and I show pictures of them, because I use them on Facebook, so I’m always taking pictures of them and they’re so funny and I love them!”
Besides her own animals, Phipps has also been caring for many thousands of other Tallahassee area animals through her Be the Solution spay and neuter organization. This Saturday, Be the Solution hosts its yearly Tally Top Pet Contest. Phipps said hundreds of pets – and of course their owners – compete for prizes.
“Somewhere between $250 and $500 cash prize for the one that actually wins Tally Top Pet,” she said. “And then we’ll have small prizes for all the other winners, because there’s four categories: there’s City Kitty; Top Dog; Little Critter; and A Horse of Course.”
Phipps said the Tally Top Pet Contest Kickoff is this Saturday.
“It’s March 5th from 12 until 4 out at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church on Lake Ella and it’s a beautiful venue. There’s a kids’ area, there’s going to be an agility course, pet photography and a special pet blessing at 2 p.m. Pastor Pam out at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church will be doing a special service at 2 p.m. – just a short service – but we’ll have a blessing booth from 2 until 4.”
People can enter a photograph of their pets through the nineteenth of this month, but Phipps hoped most entrants will take care of the process this Saturday.
“What we really want to do is get people at the kickoff event to join the contest. It makes it easy and it’s fun. It’s a professional photograph and they get to keep it.”
Being a people’s choice kind of competition, Phipps said that judging for the first time this year has been opened up to the entire community.
“It’s still $10 to enter, but voting is free,” she explained. “So I’m hoping that we’ll have a few more people enter and pass the message along, because the spay/neuter message goes with every forward every time this moves through e-mail or through Facebook, the spay/neuter message gets out there and that’s the most important part.”
With all proceeds from the Tally Top Pet Contest backing up that message with cash, Phipps hoped Be the Solution can provide even more spay and neuter vouchers to area pet owners than ever.
“I mean we did almost 3,500 animals in 2015 and then the year before around 3,200,” she said. “And this year I want to hit the 4,000 mark if not more if I can. It’s just a matter of getting the word out.”
And some of the most loveable pets in Tallahassee will be helping spread that word starting this weekend.