For reasons beyond reckoning, many of us humans (and that includes me, on a good day) feel the strange compulsion to dress up our pets in festive holiday attire around this time of year.

I know this is true because Sun-Times Media, where I was a regional vice president of the editorial several years ago, used to do a regular feature called “Pets in Hats” that basically was the top-most-viewed story on our websites. The holiday renditions were especially popular.

In my subsequent experience as editor of the then-Aol-owned local-news websites Geneva and Batavia Patch and as outreach coordinator for Kane County, participatory articles like these have done OK in terms of pageview and submissions, but only that, which surprises me. How could anyone not like a cute pet picture? Or want to share a cute picture of a pet dressed in holiday garb?

Anyway, we’re going to hold off asking you to send in your favorite holiday-pet picture for the time being, but we will share these photos of adorable dogs and cats that were posted on the fabulous Kane County Animal Control Facebook page. (Be sure to Like it!) And consider adopting a pet for the holidays that you can dress up on your own. 🙂

Here’s a link to a dog-adoption application form, a cat-adoption application form and a Petfinder link, all of which can be found under “Adopt a Pet” on the Kane County Animal Control website.

Rick Nagel
Kane County Outreach Coordinator
nagelrick@co.kane.il.us