Wags & Whiskers Calendar Photo Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

A pet rescue calendar fundraiser in the Chico market

The Wags & Whiskers Calendar Photo Contest is a pet-photo contest staged by Wags and Whiskers Pet Rescue, with the Chico market of California as its home base. The ballot lives at gogophotocontest.com/wagsandwhiskerspetrescue, and its masthead reads "Paws, Pose & Shine!" above the contest name. The banner frames the event as a "Fundraiser for Wags and Whiskers Pet Rescue", which tells a supporter right away that this is a charity calendar and not a commercial popularity poll.

Photos of pets are entered, shown in a gallery and voted on by the public. The word calendar in the name points to the end product: a printed calendar of the animals people chose to feature. Supporters, entrants and the rescue each have a different stake. Entrants want their animal featured, supporters want to help a favorite, and the rescue wants donations that fund its work.

The footer carries a copyright line crediting GGPC, LLC for 2026, which marks the site as a photo-contest service that the rescue uses rather than a site it built from scratch. That distinction matters for rules: the service supplies the voting buttons, while the rescue supplies the calendar, the deadline and the prizes or recognition.

Dated facts and the editions behind them

Ballots for this contest are confirmed in 2023 and in 2026, which is the basis for calling it annual. The years between, 2024 and 2025, are not itemized, and the organizer has not announced a 2027 cycle. A supporter who wants certainty about a future date should watch the rescue's ballot address rather than assume an October close will repeat.

The 2026 voting period is stated precisely on the ballot: it opens at 9:00 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, and ends at midnight, 11:59:59 PM Pacific Time, on Saturday, October 24, 2026. Counting the dates as printed, that is a long voting window, long enough for repeated reminders to friends and family. The landing page repeats the deadline in its headline copy as "Voting Ends 10/24/2026 at 11:59:59 PM (midnight) Pacific Time".

Chico's rescue ballot prints no photo groupings, no cap on votes per supporter and no voter eligibility terms in the public summary; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Day-level dates of the 2023 cycle are not itemized either.

How a supporter votes on the Paws, Pose & Shine! ballot

The ballot menu on the rescue's contest page lists "Enter Contest", "View Entries/Vote", "Reserve Calendar Day", "Rules", "About Us" and "Sign In". For a supporter who only wants to back a pet, the working path is View Entries/Vote: open the gallery, find the animal, and cast the vote that goes with the $1 donation.

The pairing of vote and donation is the defining mechanic of this contest. Voting here is not a free click that is merely encouraged to be generous. Each vote carries the donation, which makes the total a measure of how many dollars reached Wags and Whiskers Pet Rescue as well as a measure of popularity. A friend deciding whether to support an entry is therefore also deciding whether to give.

The other menu items serve different readers. Enter Contest is for pet owners submitting a photo. Reserve Calendar Day is a separate feature for people who want a day on the calendar, and it is not part of voting. Rules is where the organizer states any limits, and About Us introduces the rescue. Sign In is for returning participants.

Because the voting deadline falls at midnight Pacific Time on October 24, planning matters. Supporters who share a link in September and send a reminder a few days before the close usually give everyone a fair chance to act without crowding the final evening.

Where this ballot sits among California's other programs

California already has many best-of and calendar programs on this site, and the Wags & Whiskers contest stands apart from them. Best of Central Valley Business, Best of Marin, Best of Orange County, Best of San Diego & Best Restaurants and Best of Silicon Valley are regional ballots named for their areas. This ballot is tied to a rescue and its Chico market.

The closest relative by format is the 2024 GGBR Calendar Contest, which also carries the calendar label in its name. These are separate programs with separate organizers and ballots, so a strong showing in either earns nothing in the other.

What sets the rescue's ballot apart is purpose. The best-of ballots reward businesses, while this ballot raises money for animals and rewards the photos supporters like most.

Strengthening support for a calendar entry

Supporting a pet photo here is largely a matter of telling people why the vote matters. The ballot already attaches a $1 donation to each vote, so the honest pitch is simple: your vote helps the animal in the photo and helps Wags and Whiskers Pet Rescue. Share the entry link with neighbors, coworkers and relatives across the September to October window, and send reminders before the October 24 close.

On outside help, the organizer's Rules page is the authority, and it is worth reading before any group effort. Our guide to getting more votes online covers outreach basics, and award vote planning explains how paid options generally work. Nothing a supporter does can guarantee that a pet photo wins.