There’s a good chance you have a glamour shot of a cat or dog on your mobile phone. If it isn’t yours, Aunt Taminella has surely sent you countless photos of Sweetums sleeping or swimming or staring down an iguana. Or maybe Sweetums is an iguana and your dear aunty has convinced herself it’s adorable, and simply won’t stop sending pictures of its scaly, weirdly-iridescent green scowl.
Either way, good news! The Humane Society of St. Thomas is considering your pet photo for their 2026 Pets in America’s Paradise Calendar — or will consider it once you send it in.
Your cat or dog or fish or, yes, even that iguana, could land on a page of the Humane Society calendar that helps raise funds for the territory’s needy animals. Send your photo, a short essay on how your pet has enriched your life, and $10 to the Humane Society (at this link) before noon Oct. 15 for a chance to win one of 12 coveted spots.
But wait, there’s more. Virgin Islanders are also invited to judge the competition. At $1 a vote, you can cast as many ballots as you like for aunty’s creepy lizard to be Ms. February, the shortest month. But Aunt Taminella can’t be in the photo, looker that she is. The photos must be of pets only. No people.
Dellia Holodenschi, the former Humane Society of St. Thomas president, has entered her dogs in previous years and even her pet rabbit. This year, she’s considering her French hen. While it’s good fun to celebrate the territory’s pets, keeping them healthy is a community effort, she said.
With Virgin Islanders’ generosity, Humane Society is able to provide spay and neuter services vital to controlling stray animal populations. More than that, the society also houses many animals until they can find homes.
“We were built to house 70 cats and 40 dogs, and on any given day you have double that number here,” Holodenschi said. “If you find a kitten on the road, you’ve got to take it into your home and foster it because we have nowhere to put it. We can help you.”
Some of that help comes in the form of wellness clinics that cover much of a pet’s basic preventive medical care, she said. Without such free or reduced-cost clinics, pet ownership would be unaffordable for many Virgin Islanders and could lead to the stray animal problem afflicting much of the Caribbean, she said.
“If you don’t have a strong organization to take care of that, it’s like what Gandhi said: ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated,’” she said.
Hear that, Sweetums? You’re cherished. And even if Sweetums doesn’t make the darling dozen, its lipless grin will be featured on a collage page of all entries.
“If you consider that iguana a pet, then that’s fine,” Holodenschi said. “Once you put that $10 in, that guarantees you not only a calendar but it’s going to be featured in the calendar on the collage page.”
The prizes don’t stop with the pinup calendar either. The grand prize will get the cover photo as well as a month inside, a two-night stay at Emerald Beach Resort, presumably with the pet’s owners, and an exclusive photo shoot with Don Herbert Photography.
The 12 first prize winners will have their photo on one of the 12 months two complimentary copies of “Pets in America’s Paradise” 2026 Limited Edition Calendar.
Additional sponsorship comes from Sponsors Bellows International and Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits
As of Sept. 9, the competition was still within barking distance of new entrants. The sideways grin of Babyface – THE HD wonder dog was way out front with $600 raised, followed by a twosome of Ryley and Lola with $220 raised across seven individual donors.
“One dollar equals one vote and it’s all for the animals,” Holodenschi said.
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