Calling all animal lovers! Show us your baby animal photos

Everyone loves baby animals. They are totally adorable! We love them so much here at Get Ready that we made them the focus of this year's photo contest.

Image: Mike Whitmore

The contest is using baby animals — of all kinds — to promote emergency preparedness.
Whether it’s a kitten, puppy, chick or other baby animal, Get Ready wants to see them all. We’ll choose the best and most adorable photos and include them in our 2017 Get Ready calendar with fun captions and facts about preparing for emergencies.

Need some pet-spiration? Take a look at our past Get Ready Photo Contests, which have focused on cats, dogs and animals of all ages.

Contest entries will be accepted beginning July 11 via email and Instagram.

Have more questions? Check out our FAQs and official rules and regulations.

The deadline for entries is Aug. 15, so get snapping and submit your photos!

New year, new chances to be prepared with APHA’s Get Ready calendar

First-place runners-up poll winner
by Mary-Kate Duffy

2016 is here! Looking for a place to write down all your New Year’s resolutions? What if you could track those healthy habits while also learning how to be better prepared for emergencies?

Download APHA's Ready, Pet, Go! Get Ready Calendar and get started today! The 2016 calendar, which is available online, showcases adorable animal pictures from our photo contest and ways to keep you and your loved ones safe. With these great preparedness tips, you’re sure to have the best — and safest — year yet.

And while you’re on our website, don’t miss the winners of our runners-up poll! We had so many great entries from our calendar photo contest, we decided we had to share more than just the winners. The beautiful bird photo by Mary-Kate Duffy earned almost a third of your votes. Our second-place runner-up was the cat by Michele Samarya Timm, and third was Cooper the dog by Jennifer Simmons. Congrats to our winners and their photogenic animals, and thanks for voting!

Get your copy of the 2016 calendar today and print one to share with family and friends.

Enter APHA’s Get Ready Pup-Preparedness Photo Contest

Do you have a dog? Is she or he photogenic? (Need we ask?) Snap a photo of your dog and enter APHA’s Get Ready Pup-Preparedness Photo Contest! The contest is using dogs as a fun way to promote preparedness. The competition comes on the tails (pun intended!) of our successful 2012 cat photo contest.

From now until April 27, send us photos of your canine friends to enter the contest.

Take a look at the topics covered by the Get Ready campaign — such as having a plan or not, preparing for evacuation, or driving in a disaster— and figure out how to illustrate it with your dog. We will add witty captions and share your dog’s message about emergency preparedness with the world. The winning photos will go into our Get Ready calendar.

When you’re ready to send us your pics, visit the Get Ready website for FAQs, rules and other info on entering the contest.

And while you’re there, check out some of the cute doggie photos we’ve received so far!

This Valentine’s Day, show your loved ones you care — about emergency preparedness!

When you love someone, you want to keep them safe, especially in an emergency situation such as a disaster.

Here at APHA’s Get Ready campaign, we think Valentine’s Day is a great time to think about preparing for emergencies. What’s more romantic than saying you care enough to prepare?

Tornado preparedness e-card from Get Ready.

On that note, we’ve created some free emergency preparedness-themed Valentine’s Day cards for you to send to your loved ones. With topics ranging from flu shots and hand-washing to stockpiling and pet preparedness, we’ve got something for everyone.

The cards are free, and you can email, tweet or post them to Facebook — or even print them out! Just visit our e-card page to see the options and pick your favorites.

What holiday should we celebrate next? Tell us in the comments!