MRFRS Calendar Cover Cat Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the MRFRS Calendar Cover Cat Contest and who runs it?

The MRFRS Calendar Cover Cat Contest is a photo fundraiser built around a single prize: the cat whose photograph collects the most votes becomes the cover cat of the next MRFRS Cat Calendar. For the cycle just closed, that prize is the cover spot on the 2027 MRFRS Cat Calendar. The organizer is the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society, a feline rescue group whose address is 191 Elm Street (Rt. 110) in Salisbury, Massachusetts, ZIP code 01952. Cat lovers submitted their favorite photos, and the public was then invited to vote online for its favorite.

The ballot sits on the GoGo Photo Contest service, a fundraising contest platform whose page footer carries a copyright notice for GGPC, LLC. The ballot header labels the programme a fundraiser for Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society and closes with the organizer's own thank-you line about supporting programs that help cats and kittens live healthier, safer lives.

In the taxonomy of public-vote programmes, this one belongs to the pet vertical and the photo contest type; it is neither a sports fan poll nor a city best-of survey. What separates it from neighbouring Massachusetts ballots is its narrow shape: a single pool of cat photographs, a single counting period in May, and a single printed prize decided purely by the final tally.

Identity details

Which editions of the MRFRS cover cat vote are confirmed, and when does it run?

Firmly dated editions of the contest cover 2025 and 2026, and both were May affairs. The 2026 cycle, which fills the 2027 calendar, ran from May 15 to May 22, 2026 and ended at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday, May 22. Organizer pages document earlier springs as well: the page prepared for the 2024 calendar describes a voting period from May 5 to May 15, 2023, and the page for the 2026 calendar announced a vote from May 9 to May 18, 2025. Across those pages the pattern holds steady, with each spring ballot selecting the cover cat for the calendar numbered the following year.

Photograph submissions sit ahead of the vote. For the 2026 calendar, the organizer set April 30, 2025 as the submission deadline and cautioned that spots fill up quickly every year.

Two structural details stay off the published pages. MRFRS publishes no list of entry categories and no stated limit on repeat votes; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. Dates for the next spring window have not been posted either, so anyone planning around the 2027 vote should watch the organizer's calendar page.

How does a supporter vote in the MRFRS cover cat contest?

The ballot carries a short navigation bar with Home, View Entries, Rules, About MRFRS and a Sign In link. A supporter picks View Entries, scrolls the submitted cat photographs, and chooses the feline to back. Casting votes is a paid action by design: the donation per vote is $1, and votes are purchased in multiples of $5, which adds 5 votes at a time. There is no app and no paper ballot; the whole process runs through the contest web page, which behaves the same in a desktop browser and a phone browser.

Because every vote doubles as a donation, backing a cat again simply means giving again, and the published terms add no separate per-person rule on top of that pricing.

Arrival timing matters. The page for the finished 2026 cycle now shows a contest-has-ended notice, so mid-week behaviour can only be watched during the next May window. In a live period the checkpoints that matter are the May 19 count reveal described above and the Friday night close in Eastern Time. Before relying on any detail, open the Rules tab on the ballot itself, since the organizer's binding terms live there.

How does the MRFRS contest compare with other Massachusetts pet ballots?

Massachusetts animal charities run a tight cluster of spring photo fundraisers, and this site carries pages for the nearest neighbours: Dakin Humane Society's 2027 Pet Photo Contest, Last Hope K9 Rescue's 2024 Calendar Contest, the two MetroWest Humane Society pet calendar ballots, and The SouthCoast Pet and Pet Owner That Look the Most Alike. On the broader consumer side, Best of Boston covers the capital city's businesses rather than animals.

Against that set, the MRFRS ballot stands out on three points. It is restricted to cats, while the Dakin and SouthCoast ballots are open to pets generally and the Last Hope K9 ballot is canine. Its prize is a printed product, the cover of the next MRFRS Cat Calendar, rather than a title or a basket of services. And its pricing turns every vote into a small donation, which makes the leaderboard a running measure of donor support rather than raw clicking.

Choosing between the shelters' ballots

For a supporter, the practical choice comes down to the animal and the cause. A dog owner leaning toward Last Hope K9, or a look-alike duo leaning toward the SouthCoast match, is picking a different ballot rather than a different rulebook; the mechanics of public online voting are close cousins across these programmes, while the beneficiary, the prize and the calendar dates differ.

How can a cat's supporters build momentum in the MRFRS vote?

Since votes are priced as donations, momentum in this fundraiser tracks donor outreach rather than click volume. A backer determined to see a cat on the 2027 calendar cover gets the most from circulating the entry's direct link early in the May window, reminding people how the bundle pricing works, and timing reminders for the moment standings become visible midway through the week. Small, personal channels such as group chats, workplace newsletters and veterinary waiting rooms reach cat people more reliably than public posts. Outside assistance is governed by the contest terms MRFRS prints on its ballot, so read those terms before engaging any outside help; for tactics suited to donation-priced ballots, see how to get more votes online. No vote service anywhere can promise a particular finish in a public tally; what outreach changes is how many donors hear about a cat before the Friday night close.