Because we are dorks, the Portland Mercury is holding a photo contest for our annual Pet Issue (publishing mid-August!) to celebrate the beauty and taste of Portland's fur-bearing, scaly, shell-having, and/or feathered pals! "Behold! The Mercury's Most Glamorous Pet Photo Contest" is your chance to show the rest of the city how bewitching your companion animal of choice is.

Note! This isn't about pet-shaming. I like an awkward "corgi in a butterfly suit" as much as the next bored person, but this is about celebrating your pet's radiant, gleaming side, and nothing makes a being gleam so well as confidence! For example, this portrait of my own proud, exquisite tomcat, Bruce, which required only minimal Photoshopping:

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Or this one, which is a little more Inside the Actors Studio, don't you think?

Isn't he magnificent? Anyway. The winner of "Behold!" will win a custom pet portrait with Portland photographer Michelle Mitchell, and we'll print all the top entries in the Mercury Pet Issue for all to... Behold!

To submit: This contest is open to amateurs! While professional photographers are more than welcome, please do not feel intimated by the mad skills displayed above. Original file size preferred, but don't worry too much about the technical stuff. Just show us what you got! Entries are due by Wednesday, August 12!